Posts by Dave Clarke
Urban Air Mobility Is Coming
We know (Trust us, please, we know!), urban air mobility (UAM) is coming. But what’s coming, and when, and where? A lot of numbers are published, but they’re always somewhat scattershot, a projection here, a guesstimate there. So, we thought putting them all in one place – this place – might make it easier to…
How Will Law Enforcement Use UAS?
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), more commonly known as drones, have a real future in law enforcement. More accurately, they already have a real presence and an active role in policing the skies above U.S. territory. The Chicago, Illinois-area Daily Herald newspaper reported in 2017 that nearly 350 law enforcement agencies in 43 U.S. states were…
Israeli VTOL Developer Urban Aeronautics Makes Its First Sale
Urban Aeronautics, a Yavne, Israel-based developer of VTOLs (the company will use hydrogen to power its vehicles instead of electric battery-power), announced its first sale of four of its CityHawk aircraft to Hatzolah Air, a Kew Gardens, Queens, New York-based emergency medical service (EMS) provider. Hatzolah (which means “rescue” in Hebrew) ordered four air ambulance…
U.S.A., Japan Gearing Up for Urban Air Mobility
Angelenos have long had a love affair with their cars (take a gander at the 405 Freeway or Highway 101 any time, day or night). Imagine how they’re gonna feel about flying cars. That’s exactly what Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti did on 23 December 2020, when he announced the Urban Air Mobility Partnership between…
Game of Drones: How eVTOLs and UAS Will Change UAM and Our Lives
While most of the general public’s attention is focused on the prospect of flying cars, (“Damn you, Jetsons!”), much of business and industry (along with the military) remain focused on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), AKA drones, and how they can contribute to an enterprise’s bottom line by taking airborne pilots, photographers, and/or videographers out of…
UAM Word of the Day/Year/Decade: Lithium
In the 1967 Oscar-winning film, The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman received a one-word piece of advice from his father’s friend at his high school graduation party: “Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.” The film, were it to be remade today, might give a recent college grad a different one-word recommendation: Lithium. (If a few words of…