Technology
CS Group May Make Software for eVTOLs
CS Group works with engine control systems, systems that will also be critical for UAM to succeed
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” – Leonardo DaVinci When the Wright Brothers lifted off at Kitty Hawk, it was a fully mechanical miracle. Today’s aircraft are a thousand times more…
eVTOLs and Flying Cars Not Quite Cleared for Takeoff
But an UAM Traffic Management (UTM) System Is Taking Shape
“Ground control to Major Tom. Ground control to Major Tom.” (David Bowie flashback.) According to its latest reporting, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is managing roughly 16.1 million flights annually, averaging about 44,000 flights daily. That’s about 5,400 flights at any given moment. The advent of urban air mobility (AKA advanced air mobility) is…
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…
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…