Technology
EASA Flips the On Switch for Electric Aircraft
Patrick Ky, executive director of The European Union Aviation and Space Agency (EASA), announced on June 10, 2020 that EASA had given two thumbs up to the world’s first fully electric aircraft. The Pipistrel Velis Electro is a two-seat aircraft intended primarily for pilot training, according to Slovenia-based Pipistrel. The aircraft was certified in less…
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…
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:…
Ice Ice Baby
Good for Rappers, Bad for eVTOLs Back in 1990, hip-hop/rap artist Vanilla Ice (real name Robert Matthew Van Winkle) extolled the virtues of ice, or at least vanilla ice (aka himself). The song was a huge success, but speak to Jim Sherman and Mike Hirschberg, director of strategic development and executive director at the Vertical…
Airbus Embraces Flying Taxis
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said the company is “very serious” about developing flying taxis. Faury noted that the human population is projected to increasingly concentrate in urban areas. It will grow from the current 50 percent to 60 percent by 2030 and 70 percent by 2050. The European airplane maker sees this as a business…