Two eVTOLs You Can Buy and Fly Now

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Two eVTOLs (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft are available for purchase right now, presenting owners with potential thrills 20 minutes at a time.  One delivers wind between the toes (if you’re wearing sandals) and the other keeps you dry and even allows water landings.  In airplane economics, they offer “affordable” flying. Though different in appearance and aerodynamics, both machines have triple-redundant flight controls and intrinsic safety features that enable the manufacturers to offer them with relatively few restrictions and fairly easy training sessions. Both qualify as hover bikes/personal flying devices in the eVTOL.com listings of the over 600 aerial electric vehicles.  Both have eight motors and a battery pack that allows about 20 minutes of flight. We’ve turned to the eVTOL News from the Vertical Flight Society for many of the details on each machine. Jetson One An early video of a Jetson One dashing over a desert so enraptured Stephen Colbert two years ago he was begging …

A Pulitzer Written in the Sky

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Fuel Cells, GFC, Hydrogen Fuel, Solar Power, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Itching to test your electric airplane’s cross-country capabilities?  A new Pulitzer Electric Air Race of over 1,000 nautical miles (1,150.78 statute miles to be exact) between Nebraska and North Carolina will show who has the fastest electric flying machine. Jim Moore, reporting for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), shows the connection between the original Pulitzer Trophy and today’s electric competition.  “Five of the first six pilots to have their names engraved on the Pulitzer Trophy were military airmen clocked around a closed course at speeds starting at 157 mph in 1920, up to a blistering 248 mph by 1925. The trophy was created to inspire innovation, and particularly faster airplanes. That vintage trophy housed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum will be engraved with its first new name in 97 years in 2022, following completion of a 1,000-nautical-mile cross-country race by up to 25 electric aircraft.” Ralph Pulitzer was son of Joseph Pulitzer, whose prizes for …

Uber Elevate Summit Announces Sky Taxis by 2020

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Powerplants, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A scad of news about electric aircraft hit the internet and newsstands last week.  Even USA Today reported on the Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas, Texas – held with many of the participants in the 2017 Sustainable Aviation Symposium a few days before. Big news came from Uber’s announcement that it intends to offer electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) air taxi service in Dallas and Dubai by 2020.  Bigger news for SAS participants is that it is partnering with Pipistrel and Aurora Flight Sciences, both presenting at the San Francisco event.  Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer, said Bell Helicopters, Brazil’s Embraer, and Mooney Aircraft would also provide “concepts and technologies” for the near-term launch. According to Aviation Daily, “Aurora has already flown a quarter-scale model of its concept, using elements of the electric propulsion system flown in the subscale demonstrator for DARPA’s XV-24A LightningStrike high-speed VTOL aircraft.” Aurora’s concept for Uber is a two-seat eight-rotor (for vertical lift) …