Volocopter’s Short Flight Over the Bay

Dean Sigler Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Volocopter air taxi flies over Singapore’s Marina Bay Volocopter flew the latest version of its two-seat sky taxi, the 2X, on a two-minute, 1.5-kilometer excursion around and over Singapore’s Marina Bay on October 22.  This short flight, surrounded by massive, futuristic skyscrapers, highlighted the controllability of the small machine and its ability to use minimal infrastructure, taking off from and landing on a simple grass plot. Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, applauded the flight’s verification of his vision.  “The flight today in Singapore was the most advanced Volocopter flight yet and the piloted flight was as stable as ever. At the same time, we are showcasing a prototype of our full-scale VoloPort Infrastructure, allowing for a realistic demonstration of air taxi boarding and maintenance services. Never before have people been this close to experiencing what Urban Air Mobility in the city of tomorrow will feel like.” Perfect for commuting on the island, Volocopters would enable transit across the 50-kilometer (31-mile) …

Another Kind of Skyport for Volocopter

Dean Sigler Announcements, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Following last year’s Uber Elevate Summit, one came away with the idea that future landing areas for Urban Air Mobility vehicles would be multi-story and expansive, with connections readily available to other forms of commuting.  Volocopter, working with Skyports , has Volo-Ports coming, with the first one due to open by the end of this year.  The “stunning designs” for these landing pads will come from the agency Brandlab.   Drawings released so far show that Voloports will be simple and modular, enablihg their distribution in many locations or clustered in one centralized facility. Introduced at the Berlin Green Festival, Volo-Ports appear to be open, friendly places where one can be introduced effortlessly to the joys of taking Volocopters to distant places.  Volocopters, smaller than the planned five-passenger vehicles assumed for Uber Elevate rides, will eventually carry two, once certification requirements allow autonomous operation. The first Volo-Port, to be constructed in Singapore will open for scheduled flight trials in the second half …

​NTU Develops Ultra-fast Charging Batteries That Last 20 Years

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Singapore is only 276.5 square miles, about 27 miles long, and has five and a half million people, according to Wikipedia.  It’s an enormously productive country with an excellent education program from kindergarten on up to graduate schools.  Recently, one of those graduate programs announced an “ultra-fast charging batter[y] that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only two minutes.” This breakthrough from Nanyang Technology University (NTU) is also claimed to have a 20-year lifespan, 10 times that of existing lithium-ion cells. Part of the new battery’s success comes from replacement of the traditional graphite anode with a new gel materal made from titanium dioxide, “an abundant, cheap and safe material found in soil. It is commonly used as a food additive or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays.”  Although naturally found in spherical shape, titanium dioxide was rolled into nanotubes thousands of times thinner than the diameter of a human hair by the NTU researchers. …