The electrification of mobility has hit every industry to some degree or another, with some barely catching on but now doing so. The helicopter industry has been slow to adopt electricity, but the Californian consulting company Tier 1 Engineering is up to the challenge.
Boeing and Airbus are waging a serious war in the personal air transportation industry that is budding. Boeing just completed its first successful take-off and landing with its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi. It also calls this aircraft a “personal air vehicle,” or PAV.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones as they more commonly called, are booming. Ideas, concepts, and pilot tests are popping. As an example, JD.com is China’s largest retailer and it’s going all-out on automated delivery from online shops in Indonesia.
The air taxi space is crowded — if not on paper, then with prototypes and flying demos. Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company, is a global helicopter leader and no stranger to the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) world. It announced the Bell Nexus, a hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft a few years ago at CES. This year, we caught up with the team at CES in Las Vegas to find out what it looks like and what it means for our future mobility needs by 2023.
Rolls-Royce is well-known for its plush cars with infinite refinements. It is not generally known for its electric ventures. The company has dipped its fingers in autonomous electric ferries, as well as an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concept. So why not the world’s fastest electric airplane?
Elon Musk says the Tesla Roadster will be able to fly. Get out your slide rules and follow along with Wired to learn what it would take to make a Roadster fly.
Like many, I’ve been watching the developments in Boca Chica, Texas, with great interest. SpaceX, one of Elon Musk’s companies, is building the “Starship Hopper,” a shorter and simpler version of a spacecraft that could revolutionize space travel. Seeing images of the mostly complete test vehicle, clad in shiny stainless steel, makes me feel like a kid again.
Eviation Aircraft has announced that it was selected by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for research and development associated with a four-year undergraduate engineering program in its Prescott campus. The program will start in spring of 2019. Embry-Riddle is well known as the world’s largest fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace. CleanTechnica interviews Eviation Aircraft CEO Omer Bar-Yohay.
EVA is a new electric air mobility startup we met at LA Automobility 2018. It has a promising electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The eVTOL is small, 100% autonomous, and sports an ingenious configuration. It uses wings that retract when taking off and landing. EVA says it is months away from certifications and from flying the machine.
Detroit Flying Cars is one of the many hopefuls aiming to fly a car. The group suffered a setback as its owner and designer, Sanjay Dhall, tested its high-speed taxi and crashed in the early afternoon on December 14, 2018, at the Willow Run Airport (KYIP).
