CleanTechnica Electric Air Mobility & Urban Air Mobility News Roundup
It’s time for another CleanTechnica news roundup of electric air mobility news — news about electric vertical take-off & landing (eVTOL) aircraft and electric airplanes.
VerdeGo Aero Powers ASX MOBi-One Aircraft
After teaming with ASX, formerly known as AirspaceX, VerdeGo Aero will apply its Integrated Distributed Electric Propulsion (IDEP) systems to future ASX MOBi-One aircraft models. The ASX MOBi-One is an eVTOL optimized for fast, inexpensive, city-to-city transportation.
Essentially, this means the ASX MOBi-One will use Verdego Aero’s electric power options and still use traditional turbine powerplants.
Specifically, VerdeGo Aero’s IDEP systems are a modular set of batteries and hybrid-electric propulsion for eVTOLs.
Dufour Aerospace
Dufour Aerospace is developing the aEro family of long-range, high-speed, hybrid electric VTOL aircraft specifically to meet 25–800 km (15–500 mile) market demands and needs.
Dufour Aero chose a tilt-wing aircraft configuration that offers the best hovering and cruising efficiency combination. You can read the rest of the press release here.
Mokulele Airlines & Ampaire Plan For Hybrid Electric Flight In Hawaii
The Los Angeles-based aircraft design firm Ampaire is working on plans for hybrid electric airplane testing on Mokulele Airlines’ Maui route (Kahului–Hana). It aims to be testing in September or October of this year, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
A hybrid electric plane could cut fuel costs by 50% to 70% and maintenance costs by 25% to 50% while carrying up to 9 passengers within a 100-mile range, enough for Honolulu to Kahului. Chicago Tribune also has more.
Honeywell & Volocopter Team Up To Develop UAM Solution
Honeywell and Volocopter have teamed up to test and develop new navigation and automatic landing systems for Volocopter’s eVTOL, according to Honeywell.
Volocopter will use Honeywell’s autonomous sensing and flight technologies with its inertial measurement units and attitude heading reference solutions.
According to Jan Hendrik Boelens, chief technology officer (CTO) for Volocopter:
“Congestion and traffic jams continue to be time killers for people in modern megacities. New time saving, environmentally friendly solutions are required, and air taxis will certainly be one of them. Honeywell’s wealth of experience and knowledge in the development of next-generation avionics technologies combined with our manufacturing expertise will make autonomous, on-demand air mobility a reality across the world. A key goal of our collaboration is to fly a Honeywell inertial measurement-based attitude reference system solution in one of our Volocopters in 2019.”
SolarStratos Highlights The Technicalities of Flying at 60,000 ft
We might feel smug at 42,000 ft on our daily jetliners, but the SolarStratos is betting on much higher flight using only a single electric propeller.
With photovoltaic cells fitted on its wings, the SolarStratos solar aircraft could get 18,000 meters (~60,000 ft) into the air — the solar cells are enough to sustain a light airplane with a propeller designed to work at that altitude. The same goes for the wings, which are designed to make use of the little air they have to carry the electric plane safely forward (and back down).
Since a combustion engine wouldn’t work at this altitude, the electric motor was a starting block of the SolarStratos adventure.
In addition to the above, below are some recent stories from CleanTechnica:
- eHang Shows Dazzled Public Its Autonomous eVTOL Aircraft
- Bye Aerospace Announces 60 Electric Airplanes Sold To OSM Aviation
- When Airplanes Are Designed To Be Energy Agnostic, You Know Electricity Is Banging At The Door
- Airbus Modular Mobility System Pop.Up Brings Convergence To Cars & Aircraft
- Can Flying Cars Save The Environment? These Scientists Seem To Think So
- Will eVTOL Aircraft Pollute More Or Less Than Road Cars In The Coming Urban Air Mobility Future?
- Urban Air Mobility Startup Opener Hires Key Execs For Future Blackfly eVTOL
- Uber Elevate: Will Be Same Cents Per Mile In Air As On Roads
- Uber Elevate: Future Of Air Taxis = 3 Hours of Flight, 150 MPH, 4 Passengers
- Electric Airplane Maker Pipistrel Teams Up With Honeywell To Give Us An Autonomous eVTOL
- Tesla’s Autonomous Advantage, Electric Airplanes, Short Sellers, & Elon Musk — CleanTech Talk
- Eviation Chooses magniX magni250 To Power Alice, 9-Seat Electric Airplane
There you go. Stay tuned for more.
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