60 Minutes and The Today Show have recently featured sky taxis and future electric airliners on their broadcasts. This is big news in that such transport is getting recognition in popular media, and even somewhat of a fair hearing. Even though references to the Jetsons are common in such reports, both these excursions seemed to be less wide-eyed, biased, and skeptical than most. Lift Hexa Although LIFT’s Hexa is featured prominently in publicity for the show, Wisk’s CEO is featured in this promotional piece. “We’re excited to share that we’ll be on this weekend’s episode of @60Minutes on @cbstv! Be sure to tune in as our CEO, Gary Gysin, sits down with @AndersonCooper to talk about the future of #mobility!” LIFT had a say in promoting the show. “Sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour is one of the worst things about the morning commute. But what if people could fly over the gridlock? Anderson Cooper takes a ride in …
Following the Sky Taxi Money: eVTOLs
As though by magic, money from Wall Street, venture capitalists and other investors show a growing interest and cash flow in sky taxis. It started on August 11 with JoeBen Bevirt of JOBY ringing the bell that starts trading on the stock market floor. As one web site points out, it’s up to the discretion of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as to who gets to ring the bell and, “Only those companies with stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed on the exchange can ring the bell.” We’ll look at a sampling of companies making electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles and selling in domestic and foreign markets for an overview of what’s hot. Later, we’ll look at the inroads being made by makers of fixed-wing aerial vehicles in the nascent regional market. Archer “The closing of the business combination (with Atlas Crest Investment Corp.) generated $857.6 million of gross proceeds, which will help fund Archer’s vision …
Restarting the Blog with Bad News – and Some Hope
Your editor is back in action (in slow motion) having experienced two holes in his stomach, patched neatly by modern medicine and skilled practitioners. All is reasonably well and getting better. Certainly better than two well-publicized battery fires. The Bad News Coming out of the recent fog, your editor received an email from Karl Kaser (Kasaero) with dreadful news. One of two Lilium prototypes had burned, somewhat similar to the recent loss of the Eviation Alice in Prescott, Arizona. Battery fires are of great concern for the future of the emerging industry. A podcast on the company claims the firm is the, “Best funded air taxi startup in the world,” with 100 million Euros in venture capital riding on its success. Up to that point in late 2019, Lilium’s worst day was when a co-founder flew a small 3D-printed prototype into a tree. They have since been surpassed in funding because of Joby’s recent near-unicorn windfalls. This comes as a …
Volocopter’s Short Flight Over the Bay
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) …
Lilium Goes Institutional and Aspirational
Lilium has done its marketing homework. They seem to be using a lot of marketing skills to move a potentially revolutionary product most of us have no chance of ever owning. Selling Lilium’s Benefits What makes us want things? What floats our boats? What makes us stop in our tracks and look in a store window? What drags people out of their beds at midnight to stand in line for the Blu Ray of the latest Harry Potter film? Writing technical documentation first for an electronics firm and then for a major engineering design/build company, your editor helped create many proposals, inserting relevant technical data into promotional material and proposals. Working with one particularly successful marketing manager, your editor learned an important lesson: sell the benefits – not the features of the product or service you are providing. Technically-minded types usually like to bask in the features of a product – how many horsepower, how much torque, refresh rates, etc. …
Communicating Between Ducted Fans and the Wing
Aircraft quite often seem to get designed as an assembly of separate components, wings an entity unto themselves, engines or motors something attached to the fuselage or wings, and not always seen as a set of matched components until final assembly. Quite often, different components are compromised from their optimal shape or structure because of the need to integrate them with other parts of the craft. One group of researchers is finding ways to even cause components to begin communicating among themselves. Some parts, such as engines or motors, are hung on the wing or fuselage as replacements for earlier design variants. The new powerplants may provide additional power, but they may also interfere with the overall performance and handling of the airplane. University of Illinois researchers led by Dr. Phillip Ansell, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering has explored this subset of aeronautics and come to the conclusion that wings and propulsion …
Lilium Flies a Quick Demonstration
Lilium, a 36-motor electric VTOL aircraft, made initial test flights near Munich, Germany.