FutureFlight

The European Rotors show is organized by the European Helicopter Association with support from EASA and is planned as an in-person event in Cologne, Germany, in November 2021. The Vertical Flight Society will be organizing a program of technical sessions during the three-day trade show.

The Vertex project run by Airbus UpNext is intended to develop and demonstrate enabling technologies that could greatly simplify mission preparation and management tasks to the point where the pilot simply confirms the destination before monitoring the flight while conducting other tasks. Airbus expects the autonomous technology to feature in its planned eVTOL aircraft but says that it could be another decade before urban air mobility flights might be conducted without a pilot on board.

During a recent virtual demonstration, Honeywell showed how distributed processing technology and advanced fly-by-wire algorithms are supporting plans for simplified vehicle operations with new eVTOL aircraft. The company also displayed its latest digitally active phased-array radar and hydrogen fuel cells for propulsion systems.

Jetoptera is exploring options to apply its patented Fluidic Propulsion Technology, which could help eVTOL and eSTOL aircraft developers overcome the limitations of current battery technology, while also harnessing what the company claims is an exceptionally low noise signature well suited to operations in urban environment. At the same time, it is working on plans for its own 4,000-pound full-scale prototype aircraft ready to start flight testing in 2024 or 2025.

Skyports is working to secure sites on which vertiports can be built and operated to support eVTOL air taxi services. It is already involved in prospective projects in Paris, London, and Singapore and is now turning its attention to Japan. The UK-based group also operates drone delivery services and is looking to expand its network.

Universal Hydrogen announced the close of its Series A funding round on Earth Day, with a claim that its hydrogen propulsion system gives air transport the best shot at meeting its commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change. New and existing backers of the technology contributed to the round.

Bye Aerospace claims it already has customer commitments for the eFlyer 800, which will carry seven passengers and one or two pilots on flights of up to around 575 miles. The new model will be powered by motors from Safran and new lithium-sulfur batteries from Oxis Energy.

Leonardo's Swiss-based Kopter subsidiary has been designated as the group's center of excellence for new rotorcraft technology. The prototypes for its new AW09 single-engine helicopter will likely be used as the basis for a technology demonstrator for the proposed hybrid-electric design.

Initially, the Oxis Quasi Solid-State Li-S cells will have specific energy levels of around 450 Wh/kg and energy density of 550 Wh/L, which is already higher than existing lithium-ion batteries. The company expects to improve this performance by at least one-third by 2026.

MightyFly says that it can operate a fleet of cargo eVTOL aircraft almost completely autonomously, with just a small team of controllers monitoring flights from the ground. Packages will be transferred autonomously between aircraft at dedicated transfer stations located close to its business customers, with trial operations due to start in 2022.