eVTOLs/Urban Mobility

NASA formally unveiled its electric airplane test bed last week and the Maxwell (more formally the X-57) will be the agency’s first manned aircraft project in 20 years. The aircraft, which is based on a Tecnam 2006 light twin, is still at least a year from its first flight but the two largest of its […]

New industry association The Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI) announced its official launch this week. The nonprofit organization’s stated mission is to “support the responsible integration of urban air mobility (UAM) into communities through education, communication and advocacy.” In addition to its mission goals, CAMI says its priorities include outreach, public relations and model policy […]

Legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan has reportedly turned his outside-the-box vision toward eVTOL transportation and he’s already said to prepare for something different. “It’s pretty different from the 170 different outfits that are doing eVTOL now,” he is quoted as saying by Aviation Week. “And that’s all I can say about it.”  Rutan “retired” in […]

Uber Elevate hopes to have urban mobility services operating in Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, by 2023. Eric Allison, who heads up Uber’s aviation division, told an audience at NBAA-BACE 2019 in Las Vegas the form and function of the new type of urban transportation is starting to come together into what he terms […]

Boeing and Porsche announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Thursday launching a partnership to “explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace.” According to Boeing, the companies plan to create a team to study areas of urban air mobility including market analysis and use cases […]

Kitty Hawk’s latest entry into the incipient urban mobility market is missing something important and it might be its biggest selling point. The new Heaviside (named for Oliver Heaviside, a controversial early 20th century physicist and electrical engineer) is virtually silent in flight with a noise level of about 38 decibels at 1,500 feet. Helicopters […]

Airbus and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation designed to “bring together their respective experiences and know-how” on developing the next generation of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) platforms and associated regulatory framework. According to Airbus, the agreement includes cooperation in areas such as high-speed flight, certification of new […]

Bell’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70 unmanned aircraft system (UAS/drone) successfully completed its first autonomous flight on Monday at the company’s testing site near Fort Worth, Texas. Bell says it intends to continue testing the APT 70 under an experimental type certificate for the rest of 2019 with the goal of holding a simulated commercial […]

German urban air mobility developer Volocopter introduced its fourth-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) design on Wednesday. The VoloCity, which is intended for use as an urban air taxi, is expected to have a range of 35 km (19 NM), a top airspeed of 110 km/h (59 knots), and a payload capable of […]

China-based urban air mobility (UAM) company EHang has announced that it has selected Guangzhou, China, as the first city in which it will establish a low-altitude passenger transportation network using its autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). As part of the arrangement, EHang will work with the city government to build necessary infrastructure, design safety rules and […]