At the 7th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium in January 2020, the Vertical Flight Society (VFS) helped launch the eVTOL Writers Group. In addition to other activities, VFS has supported the group with a series of online interviews with leading eVTOL developers. The following interviews are available to the public.
In April, Bell named Jason Hurst as its new vice president of innovation, after more than 17 years at the company. Hurst is a graduate of the University of North Texas, and received a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Texas at Arlington. He joined Bell in 2002 as a project engineer on the V-22 Osprey.
EHang is a unique story of how a Chinese aviation startup developed electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft on its own. Away from the western urban air mobility (UAM) buzz, EHang today has six models of its manned and unmanned Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) designs, as well as an ecosystem for managing its aircraft. (Above: In May, EHang received the world’s first approval to conduct a pilot program for unmanned air logistics delivery. All photos via EHang.)
The US Air Force got an unexpected payoff in April from, of all things, the novel coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 led the service to officially launch Agility Prime — its initiative to boost electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and related technologies — online instead of live. Broad participation by senior military officers and government officials in the quickly organized “virtual conference” showed significant support for Agility Prime within federal ranks.
On May 21, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft startup Archer unveiled its plans and progress to the world. The company is led by co-founders Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein, serial entrepreneurs who recently sold hiring marketplace startup Vettery to The Adecco Group for over $100M.
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Aviation industry and finance experts say the global economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will prove deadly for many developers of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and may lead big corporate investors to slow their eVTOL ventures. But the recession will likely just speed the arrival of the inevitable.
With the dawn of a new decade, we’ve been taking a look back at how things have changed since the beginning of the 21st Century. Like everything else, this series has now taken a new perspective given the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
A long-time VTOL designer’s latest startup emerging from stealth development mode has unveiled a hybrid-electric “practical flying car” concept that it hopes to ground- and hover-test next year, culminating nearly 20 years of development including a government contract.
Slovenian electric aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel announced plans in a May 13 newsletter to shift developmental focus from its Project-801 eVTOL — a candidate for the Uber Air mission — towards three of its other designs following “delays with the Uber flying taxi program by many international authorities.”
German eVTOL aircraft maker Volocopter has recently partnered with two companies as part of developing its two-seat VoloCity multicopter. Aerospace equipment manufacturer AUTOFLUG GmbH announced May 7 it would supply Volocopter with its modular Flyweight family of seats for installation on the VoloCity. Under the contract, AUTOFLUG will produce and deliver the seats, and the two companies will jointly develop the interface “to make optimum use of the available space in the cabin.”
