Research
Airfare. AirFair? How Much Will an eVTOL Ride Cost?
In the movies, the bad guy would run out of a building and hop in a taxi. Seconds later, the good guys would hail the next cab in line and say, “Follow that car!” After a harrowing chase, the bad guy gets out and runs, the good guys throw a pile of bills at the…
Full Charge: The eVTOL Revolution Will Need Batteries
Professor Martin Winter says powerful, but small, lightweight, batteries are essential to eVTOL success. “Battery development is triggered by the stakeholders,” says battery technology expert Professor Martin Winter. Winter is founder and scientific director of the MEET Battery Research Center at Münster University (about 340 miles west of Berlin). But, so far, most of…
Drones Deliver in COVID-19 Healthcare Trial
The UK’s Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership National Health System (NHS Highland and Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership) are implementing a two-week drone delivery trial to speed urgent medical cargo, such as COVID-19 test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), to remote parts of the Scottish Highlands. Using the…
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…
NASA Series to Lead the Way in Making eVTOLs a Reality in the US
Just a few years ago, as people in the aviation field discussed how eVTOLs (called flying cars in popular culture) might be integrated into existing airspace, the term urban air mobility (UAM) came into being. Coining it that made sense. After all, a Jetson-like cityscape is what many people think of when they imagine vertical…
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…