FutureFlight

It takes a village and expert use of long-lens cameras to reveal all of the secrets that would-be eVTOL aircraft developers trying to keep under wraps. So kudos to The Drive's Tyler Rogoway and aviation photographer Jack Beyer for blowing the cover of what appears to be part of Toyota's plans to expand in this sector.

Deloitte has updated its research into consumer attitudes to urban air mobility (UAM), and the bottom line is that the industry has a ways to go in convincing the public that the concept has a viable future. The results are mixed but overall survey respondents came out at around 50/50 on the following key questions: is UAM a viable solution to roadway congestion and are passenger-carrying, autonomous aircraft safe?

Public acceptance of flights in autonomous electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is increasingly emerging as a key enabler, or a potential stumbling block, for urban air mobility. So far, however, there has been little in the way of published research gauging where public attitudes currently stand on this issue.

Burt Rutan has been at the cutting edge of aircraft design for decades. When he sold his Scaled Composites company in 2011, many might have assumed he was transitioning to a well-earned retirement. Then, at an October 20, 2019, event to mark the 40th anniversary of the first flight of his Long EZ aircraft, 76-year-old Rutan let slip that he's working on a design for an eVTOL aircraft. As if realizing that he might have said too much, he declined to provide his audience, and a select group of reporters, with any further details.

Self-driving cars are already "a thing," albeit a not-widely-accepted one in the wake of some well-documented mishaps. But Sebastian Thrun, founder and CEO of Kitty Hawk, is convinced that autonomous operations will take off more quickly and comprehensively in the air than on the ground. He would say that, of course, given Kitty Hawk's ambitions in this area through its partnership with Boeing NeXt to develop the Cora eVTOL aircraft.

Multi-disciplinary clusters of academics worldwide are the engine room for many of the key areas of technology advancement underpinning the development of electric aircraft. One such research and development hub is the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering, where associate professor Anubhav Datta is leading a team developing new approaches to lightweight electrical storage to go on board aircraft.

Industry standardization body ASTM International is a significant contributor to the complex collaboration between industry and government to establish the foundational standards needed to allow eVTOL aircraft operations to be conducted safely. This article in ASTM Standardisation News provides granular detail as to how these efforts are coming together.

ASTM experts from across the aviation industry are working on specialist committees to tackle complex issues relating to aircraft systems, autonomous flight, and personnel needs for urban air mobility, among other topics.

So far, in the short but frantic history of the urban air mobility sector, it seems to have been the IT crowd and existing aerospace players who have led the investment charge in electric vertical takeoff and landing technology. There are obvious synergies between these established industries and the precocious newcomers, not least because both can contribute significant expertise on top of cold, hard cash. 

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report into the crash of Boeing's Passenger Air Vehicle prototype on June 2, 2019, highlighted an apparent design or system weakness in the aircraft. According to detailed analysis of aircraft data, excessive levels of vibration caused the aircraft to enter "ground mode," which resulted in the motors being shut down incorrectly. This caused the aircraft to fall quickly to the ground, causing significant damage. 

The 2019 UP summit meeting brought together a self-defining elite of aviation entrepreneurs and prospective investors at ranch of Ross Perot Jr. in Westlake, Texas. Ben Marcus and Cyrus Sigari, founders of private jet broker JetAviva, jointly organized the third annual summit, claiming that this year's gathering included around $100 billion of investable capital among the attendees. This lured start-ups such as Beta Technologies and Lift Aircraft, joining senior executives from aerospace giants like Bell, Boeing, and Airbus.