Posts by Dave Clarke
What Living with Flying Cars Will Be Like
We get so immersed in the mechanics and infrastructure surrounding the development of eVTOLs that we sometimes forget about what a world with flying cars will be like or what it will take to have the population at large accept these soon-to-be modern miracles. We know that eVTOLs are in our future – sooner than…
EASA Publishes VTOL Additional Certification Methods
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) enhanced the flight path toward urban air mobility (UAM) by publishing its proposal for the certification of electric or hybrid air taxis (VTOLs) on May 25, 2020. The Cologne, Germany-based agency first outlined a certification framework VTOL manufacturers could use to begin developing air taxis (Special Condition VTOL)…
Vertiports: If You Build Them, Will They Come?
Horse, stable. Ship, dock. Car, garage. Airplane, hangar. Air transportation vehicles need a place to park, too. Whether to refuel, recharge, or reload, the urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles in development today will need somewhere to depart from and somewhere to land. They will need infrastructure to support them, not the least of which will…
Sound Effects—Let’s Not Hear It for UAM!
Some noises, we know, are joyful: Laughter. Music. A crackling fireplace. Other sounds are grating (some, intentionally so): a siren, nails on a chalkboard, an electric drill. For all the technical challenges the UAM industry faces in gaining acceptance for eVTOLs, one of the top challenges, according to a 2019 NASA UAM study, is building…
Capital Idea: NEXA Capital Gives UAM Lift and Keeps It Grounded
Step 1: Get a degree in aeronautics from MIT. Step 2: Go into finance. Huh? Let’s just say Michael Dyment took an unorthodox flight path out of college but actually ended up merging his love for aviation with his affinity for aviation innovation. The result is NEXA Capital, which Dyment founded in 2007, a boutique…
NASA Working on Road Rules – for the Sky
“Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird. It’s a plane.” If this were the 1950s, the next line (from the original TV show) would be, “It’s Superman!” But, if they were to remake the show in 2020, the opening dialogue might be slightly different: Man: Look. Up in the sky. It’s a plane. Woman:…