Technology
eVTOL, UAS, and Now, Another UAM Acronym: LiDAR
When the UAM revolution takes off, there will be no shortage of acronyms. There’s already eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles), UAS (unmanned aerial systems), UAM (urban air mobility). Now add one more: LiDAR. A 50-year-old technology, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, is expected to play a key role in the development of…
UAM Word of the Day/Year/Decade: Lithium
eVTOLs Need Batteries; Batteries Need 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…
Are Ornithopters a Birdbrained Idea or Smart UAM?
eVTOLs with Flapping Wings – Great, Big Wings (and Little Ones Too!)
When you think “Renaissance Man,” you will likely conjure Leonardo da Vinci. Sculptor-extraordinaire, painter of masterworks, and yes, even a designer for a flying machine centuries before the Wright Brothers cracked the code to modern aviation. Leonardo imagined and sketched flying machines with the pilot prone, standing, and using his arm and leg strength to…
Slovakia’s Klein Vision AirCar Flying Car
Company Throws Down Its Gauntlet
Apparently, Stefan Klein is a man with a vision. Hence, Klein Vision, s.r.o., which has led him to develop and, now, successfully test fly his AirCar flying car. The AirCar looks similar to the Batmobile, but with wings and rudders that expand and retract to accommodate ground and air transportation. It can go from car…
UAM Visual Noise Pollution
What the Industry Must Consider Now
With some estimates predicting as many as a half million eVTOLs, hybrid VTOLs, and other urban air vehicles traversing the world’s metropolitan skyways within a decade, a challenge looms for UAM aircraft developers and would-be operators that none alone can overcome: visual noise pollution. Airports have faced the issue of noise abatement from aircraft taking…
Swarm Intelligence of eVTOL Drones
It’s said, “There’s strength in numbers.” But can there be acumen and judgment too? Even if those numbers are comprised of individuals that, on their own, aren’t particularly intelligent? In a word: Yes. Using artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and nature (think bees, ants, or a flock of geese), scientists are teaching eVTOL drones to use…