When most people think of Rolls-Royce, they think of really expensive but ancient-looking cars. In the Back to the Future series, wrecking into one was bad enough to destroy one’s whole financial future. They’re that expensive, and Marty McFly was definitely glad that he was able to change his ways … [continued]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recently announced the release of funding to several organizations working on electric aircraft, including General Electric, as part of its Connecting Aviation By Lighter Electric Systems (CABLES) program. “Future all-electric, twin-aisle aircraft will require more than 50 MWs of power … [continued]
Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation has been quietly working on its tilt-rotor eVTOL air taxi for over a decade now, but seems to have taken a big step forward after going public via a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, called Reinvent Technology Partners. That deal results … [continued]
The mentalists at Australian flying-car company Alauda recently showed off the third version of their highly anticipated Airspeeder eVTOL (dubbed “Mk3”). That alone would be newsworthy, but it’s the second part of Alauda’s announcement that’s more impressive — that’s not the part where the company plans some RC-style remote flying … [continued]
There’s definitely a lot of room for different types of autonomous vehicle teams to be communicating and cross-pollinating their approaches and technology. We would all benefit.
While you’ll find great coverage all over the internet of the ins and outs of FAA’s issues with SpaceX, I want to make a wider point about the FAA that affects not only space programs, but also the most popular form of electric aviation: small unmanned aerial systems, sUAS, or “drones.”
In previous articles, we covered that SpaceX bought two offshore oil rigs, with plans to modify them into floating launch and landing facilities for Starship. We weren’t 100% sure where 8501/Phobos was, but thanks to our readers, we now know where it is.
DJI’s drones are already capable of doing some autonomous operations in areas more complicated than the roads, and sometimes far more complicated. It’s not a major stretch to say that DJI is already pretty good at dealing with complicated and dangerous conditions with its current autonomous vehicle efforts. Adding ground-based systems to its portfolio isn’t that big of a leap.
Recently in Australia, electric aviation saved the day again, but not in the usual way. A man used a drone to get a text message out, allowing rescuers to find a stranded group of people.
The CityHawk is much more than a few concept drawings. The vehicle has been in development since the company’s inception in 2001, and an unmanned version of the CityHawk has been flying successfully for at least a year.
