Technology
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…
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…