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Bye Aerospace has begun the next phase of its flight test program for its two-seat all-electric eFlyer 2. The latest aircraft built is a technology demonstrator aircraft that will pave the way for the future of electric flight, and the final version eFlyer 2.

Bye Aerospace’s two-seater eFlyer 2 technology demonstrator.

Bye Aerospace’s mission is to develop innovative and effective zero CO2 electric propulsion systems, along with integrations of structural and mechanical systems and aerodynamic advances. With electric aircraft like the eFlyer 2 moving towards production, the future of electric flight slowly is becoming more clear. This next stage of testing for the eFlyer 2 focuses on identifying an efficient and effective propellor for the eFlyer’s all-electric flight, setting the stage for the propellor dynamics of electric aircraft of all kinds, including eventual all-electric eVTOLs. It’s likely that industry discoveries and innovations being made in these traditional fixed wing electric aircraft (like the eFlyer 2, the magniX?Cessna Grand Caravan, and the Ampaire EEL Electric Aircraft) will eventually make their way into all kinds of aerial mobility aircraft, including vertical-lift electric aircraft and more. For now, Bye Aerospace hopes that?the eFlyer 2 will dramatically reduce operations costs and eliminate C02 emissions within the pilot flight training industry.

The eFlyer 2 in-flight

Said George E. Bye, CEO of Bye: ““Data from these flight tests will help our engineering team determine the most efficient propeller that will maximize the overall efficiency for the typical flight training syllabus requirement. The prototype Rolls Royce electric motor currently on the eFlyer 2 technology demonstrator has varying torque and a large RPM range with a relatively small size and cross-section compared to a conventional internal combustion engine.? Therefore, more of the propeller length is available to provide thrust across a broad range of RPM.” Mr. Bye concluded by mentioning that multiple iterations of the propellor will be tested over the summer against beneficial and unique electric propulsion criteria required for flight training missions.

Watch a full video summary of Bye’s mission below:

Why it’s important:?Bye Aerospace is one of the world’s top companies pushing forward the electric propulsion and flight industry. With advancements made by Bye and similar electric aerospace companies, overall contributions to eVTOL aircraft such as batteries, aerodynamics, and propulsion technologies will be vast.

Airbus has recently released new footage of the CityAirbus eVTOL performing untethered flight at a facility in Donauw?rth, Germany. Watch the footage below.

The footage was shared by Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even on his personal Twitter Account. The CityAirbus was quoted as being “a key element in our innovation roadmap in order to develop the techno-bricks necessary for achieving sustainable aviation.” Additionally, according to an Airbus spokesperson, the flight in the footage was in line with the previous flight tests, with no setbacks. Interestingly, it was also the first time Evens personally oversaw the flight of the impressive eVTOL demonstrator.?

The CityAirbus project, part of Airbus’ designs to develop a workable and mass-producible commercial electric air taxi service, explores many aspects for Airbus’ future program. The demonstrator features a four-seat, multicopter design, with eight propellers encased within four ducted propulsion units, and a top speed of 75mph. Airbus is also experimenting with integrated technology for autonomous flight.?

Watch CityAirbus’ first untethered flight here.

For more information on the demonstrator, visit our aircraft page here

The demonstrator features a four-seat, multicopter design, with eight propellers encased within four ducted propulsion units, and a top speed of 75mph.

Why it’s important: As confirmed early summer, Airbus remains committed to the development of the CityAirbus program and air mobility in general. As announced by an Airbus? spokesperson, “Airbus considers new forms of air transport such as UAM [urban air mobility] an opportunity to develop key technologies for the future of VTOL platforms, including electric flight and autonomy.”

Source // @BrunoEven (Bruno Even), Twitter

Vertical Aerospace tweeted it will use Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform to accelerate product development for its Seraph eVTOL prototype. 3DEXPERIENCE is a cloud-based platform which allows aerospace manufacturers to improve collaboration across design, manufacturing, and testing teams while reducing developmental costs across the value stream. This platform has already been implemented with other eVTOL manufacturers among the likes of Joby Aviation. Vertical Aerospace has a team of 100 engineers and counting and this platform will help give a leg up on the competition.

Before the outbreak of #COVID19, @VerticalAero adopted the #3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud. So, even though they are working from home, the team’s mission to revolutionize how people fly is continuing at full speed. Learn how you can do the same: https://t.co/KZN86CPaJ4 pic.twitter.com/yOCdZmPPMl

— 3DEXCITE (@3DEXCITE) June 8, 2020

“At Vertical Aerospace we were fortunate to have moved onto the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud before we were remote working,” said Owen Thompson Cheel, Flight Systems IPT Lead, Vertical Aerospace. “The team has all they need to work from home and by using the platform on cloud we have been able to continue working with virtually no difference in performance. It’s an excellent case for working on the cloud, and the 3DEXPERIENCE platform has allowed us to remain agile and secure without loss of capability, effectively maintaining business continuity.”

Vertical Aerospace will be able to use the cloud-based platform to efficiently deliver its prototype to market while minimizing costs and maintaining quality across the product life-cycle.

“Disruptive innovators like Vertical Aerospace are using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to advance their compelling vision for sustainable mobility and invent new industries,” said David Ziegler, Vice President, Aerospace & Defense Industry, Dassault Systèmes. “As businesses today must completely rethink the way they work, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud offers the largest portfolio of applications for product design and engineering from anywhere, with a high level of performance and secure, efficient access to data.”

Why it matters: Dassault Systems is known for its contributions to aerospace program development, most notably its CATIA/ENOVIA/SOLIDWORKS product lineups used by major OEMs including Boeing and Airbus. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform leverages 21st century mobility principles with the latest product life cycle product management technology, ultimately lowering the barriers to entry for players in the aerial mobility space.

Japanese eVTOL company SkyDrive announced the conclusion of their 100th corporate sponsorship agreement, announcing a public flight demo sometime this summer. The company has gained 100 Japanese and international corporations, including Toyota, Panasonic, and Sony PCL, in support of the commercialization of air mobility by 2023. SkyDrive is now readying to tackle their next milestone: a manned public flight demonstration in Japan sometime this summer. Further details on the specifics such as date and location are expected to be released in the following months.?

“On occasion, those of us who were pouring our time and energy into Cartivator’s flying car project as volunteers realized the limitations of privately funded development activities and wondered if our target of staging a flight demonstration in the summer of 2020 could be met,” says SkyDrive Chief Executive Tomohiro Fukuzawa, “However, the generous support of our sponsors, which has come in the form of financial assistance, engineering expertise and insights, and human resources, has meant everything to us and enabled us to hang on to our dream and keep our project going. On behalf of the entire team, I would like once again to express my deepest gratitude to all of our sponsors and promise that we will remain fully committed to staging the flight demonstration scheduled for this summer.”

SkyDrive is a Japanese eVTOL company, originally established by the members of CARTIVATOR, a group of aircraft, drones, and automotive engineers coming from a background of working at Toyota. While SkyDrive originally intended to demonstrate their eVTOL at the lighting of the torch at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the company nevertheless intends to show off the capabilities of their flying car sometime this summer.

Why it’s important: Skydrive is on the leading edge of aerial mobility technology in Japan, and following their acquiral of their 100th corporate sponsor as well as the success of their manned flight tests, now look to demonstrate to the public their accomplishments. It remains to be seen how widely the company expands beyond Japan, but Skydrive’s strong funding and progress in testing has drawn attention across the globe.

Source // SkyDrive Public Relations

After a brief pause in flight testing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, air taxi company Wisk has resumed flight tests of the Cora aircraft in both the U.S and New Zealand.?

Wisk is the result of joint venture between Kitty Hawk and Boeing, in collaboration with Air New Zealand and the New Zealand Government.

Wisk was established in 2019 as a joint venture between The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation, in collaboration with Air New Zealand. The Cora aircraft itself was originally created by Kitty Hawk, which has now transitioned to working on its latest aircraft, the Heaviside.?As of February 2020, Wisk had signed a partnership with the government of New Zealand to eventually bring Cora’s autonomous air taxi capabilities to the country’s transportation infrastructure. The MoU signed that month allowed Wisk to begin conducting the world’s first full airspace integration trial of an autonomous eVTOL in Canterbury, a large region of New Zealand.

The now-resumed flight tests will evaluate the performance of the aircraft in a real world environment, while collecting data that will help inform the further development, operation, safety features and certification of the Cora aircraft.?Prior to the to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company had completed over 1300 test flights to expand the flight envelope, provide data for modeling, improve overall design, and complete procedures to operate the aircraft safely and efficiently.

The Wisk Cora on the ground, making its many propellors visible.

Says Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk, “The team’s dedication over the past few months has allowed us to remain focused on critical non-flight areas, such as certification, software development, and operations. This has allowed us to maintain momentum during this unique time. But it’s awesome to be flying again.”

Carl Engel, Director, Flight Test for Wisk, comments: “Our first priority has always been safety, both for our employees and in the development of our aircraft. As we return to flight testing, we have implemented a number of procedures and social distancing measures based on best practices and recommendations from local and national health and government organizations.”

Why it’s important:?While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly put a temporary hold on physical flight tests, the team at Wisk was successfully able to use that time to achieve many important goals working from home, focusing on subjects like operations, certification, and critical software. Given that Wisk was able to adjust its development workflow so quickly, it was likely able to reduce a great deal of the negative impact of the pandemic slow-down, and now can resume flight testing without delay.

BAE Systems announced via a press release last week their roll out of innovative progress on the electric propulsion system power controller front. Electric ducted fans, or EDF’s, along with brushless electric DC motors, have become popular among many eVTOL prototypes currently in existence. While many designs finalized on DC motors without the ducted fans, the engine (or propulsor) controller technology that best regulates and optimizes energy consumption over time will enable a lower direct operating cost for many customers. When cost is amortized over many thousands of flight hours, those savings add up quickly.

BAE’s main controllers are laptop-sized and are purportedly able to manage almost any propulsive devise – small through large. BAE’s value add to the already well developed electronic engine controller market is their investment in?core technologies to reduce the size and weight of their control devices. Their press release state that, as a result of their recent innovative processes, the controllers are now “40 percent smaller and lighter than their original size and weight, but with 10 times the processing power”.

BAE has also added additional cyber security protection measures to their controllers, in order to protect against increasing invisible threats to aviation security. Many aerial mobility companies are developing their propulsion management technology internally, but BAE’s plug and play approach caters to the popular design mantra of sourcing ready to use components in order to create a ready to fly prototype for faster (and arguably cheaper) than a vertically integrated design solution. The future of electric propulsor energy use optimization is crucial considering the projections of the ultimate size of the aerial mobility industry, and the huge efficiency gain and cost reduction from a mere 1% of net change in electricity use.

Why it’s important:?Obsession with optimization is no new concept to the aerospace industry, and the concept of electronic brushless motor controllers designed specifically for aerial mobility aircraft, or hybrid propulsion solutions that require greater integration demands, is a subtle yet crucial detail and fundamental design decision for many UAM designers and manufacturers. Some companies will use plug and play hardware such as BAE’s offerings, while others will select to remain in house and create a tailored solution to their needs. Regardless, expect further reductions in weight and size of these controllers, as well as fundamentally different management architecture for systems that largely rely on more distributed power to achieve greater efficiency.

Source // BAE Aerospace Press Release

Israeli aviation company Urban Aeronautics has partnered with HyPoint in order to develop a hydrogen-powered version of their CityHawk eVTOL. The partnership enables Urban Aeronautics to utilize HyPoint’s unique “turbo air-cooled” hydrogen fuel cell design to replace the existing powertrain which uses jet fuel. The new design of the CityHawk will possess obvious advantages; Lightweight, emission-free, reliable, and powerful, HyPoint’s fuel cell is ideal for use in a sector of aviation that increasingly favors environmentally friendly aircraft designs.

The CityHawk, a commercial version of the Cormorant, possesses a moderate resemblance to a futuristic car, lacking the wings or propeller arms that would be seen on the frame of a typical eVTOL aircraft. Officially designated as a “fancraft” by Urban Aeronautics, the VTOL takes flight through inconspicuous lift rotors installed at the front and rear, and is able to seat six people, with autonomous piloting.?

The current design of the CityHawk (and Cormorant) requires the use of several turbine engines, of which the power requirements vastly exceed the ability of any lithium battery-based powertrain, which was the main reason why Urban Aeronautics pursued a partnership with HyPoint. A hydrogen fuel cell powertrain possesses both the capability to run the turbine engines while also presenting a much more environmentally friendly alternative to jet fuel. According to Rafi Yoeli, CEO of Urban Aeronautics, “We look forward to collaborating with HyPoint on the integration of the next generation of hydrogen fuel cell systems for eVTOL transportation and the urban air mobility market… As a high-power, 100 percent environmentally friendly fuel, hydrogen is key to the future of eVTOL aircraft.”

Why it’s important: Urban Aeronautics pursuing a hydrogen based fuel source for the CityHawlk allows for them to keep the attractive design of the Cormorant, which possesses one of the smallest ground footprints of any VTOL air taxi design capable of seating four or more people. A completely electric powertrain is currently not feasible with existing battery technology, but the proposed alternative is the next best thing, as it will still allow Urban Aeronautics to vastly reduce their carbon footprint from their design.

Source // New Atlas

After years of intensive research and several successful award-winning electric aircraft models developed since 2007, Pipistrel has achieved a breakthrough feat in aviation history, having type certified the battery powered Velis Electro. Working in tight collaboration with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, whose engagement was essential to reaching this unprecedented milestone, Pipistrel demonstrated that its new Velis Electro achieves the highest levels of safety.

Pipistrel has received an EASA type certificate for its Velis Electro aircraft.

Conceived as a fundamental part of the ‘Velis Training System’, the Velis Electro was designed to be simple to operate and maintain, without compromising safety. Employing Pipistrel’s type certified electric engine, the Velis Electro delivers power instantly and without hesitation – using a simplified user interface in a cockpit that maintains the same look-and-feel of its conventionally powered siblings. The reduced number of moving parts dramatically decreases maintenance costs and the risk of malfunctions is further minimized thanks to its built-in continuous health-monitoring system.

This enhanced reliability allows the Velis Electro to have more than double the lifespan of power-train elements in comparison to the previous generation of electric aircraft. The revolutionary power train is entirely liquid-cooled, including the batteries, and demonstrated the ability to withstand faults, battery thermal runaway events, and crash loads as part of the certification process. The overall result of all these breakthrough innovations is a drastic reduction in the operating costs, significantly contributing to the affordability of pilot training.

“The type certification of the Pipistrel Velis Electro is the first step towards the commercial use of electric aircraft, which is needed to make emission-free aviation feasible. It is considerably quieter than other airplanes and produces no combustion gases at all,” said Mr Ivo Boscarol, founder and CEO of Pipistrel Aircraft. “It confirms and provides optimism, also to other electric aircraft designers, that the Type Certificate of electric engines and airplanes is possible. The engine, which Pipistrel type certified separately, is also available to other aircraft OEMs. For Pipistrel, this achievement injects additional motivation for the future eVTOL and multi-seat hydrogen-powered projects. Pipistrel is especially thankful to all our customers for their confidence in our products, which allows us to continue developing these innovative aircraft,” he added.

Ivo Boscarol, Founder and CEO of Pipistrel

Mr Dominique Roland, Head of the General Aviation Department at EASA, expressed: “For EASA, the type certification of this aircraft marks a significant dual milestone: on 18th of May 2020 we type certified its engine as the first electric engine – now we have followed up with the first type certification of a plane flying that engine. This was a truly ground-breaking project which has yielded many learnings for the future certification of electric engines and aircraft, undoubtedly a growth area in coming years in line with the aims of environmental protection.

“It should also be noted that this innovative product was, despite the many challenging aspects, certified in less than 3 years, showing the excellent work performed by Pipistrel and the EASA teams. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the certification team was composed of EASA staff, but included experts from the Swiss and French authorities, in order to prepare and facilitate the entry into service of the Velis Electro in these two countries.”

Mr Paolo Romagnolli, Head of Engineering at Pipistrel, highlighted the technical excellence: “The Velis Electro project has been one of those engineering challenges we like at Pipistrel. EASA Type Certificate is an uncompromised affirmation of the safety of the design. Having achieved this with a relatively small team is proof that young, talented, and motivated professionals can bring innovation into reality. Completing the work nobody else has ever done before makes us all very proud of being members of this engineering team.”

Why it matters:?The Pipistrel Velis Electro is the world’s first fully electric airplane ever to receive type certification from EASA. The two-seater, intended primarily for pilot training, is a game-changing aircraft in terms of technological innovations and cost-efficiency. Its EASA certification paves the way for the future of environmentally sustainable, emission-free aviation, particularly in the eVTOL space.

Source: Pipistrel Press Release

Airflow, a company founded in 2019 by five former members of the Airbus Vahana Project, just announced its upcoming eSTOL – an electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing within remarkably short runways.

Rendering of the upcoming Airflow eSTOL.

STOLs (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft have been around for many years; typically being used to access remote areas such as clearings in forests or other rural areas where full runways may not be available. Their ability to take off and land quickly, often within 150-300ft, makes them extremely versatile.

A traditional STOL aircraft, typically used for accessing remote areas without large runways.

Members from the Airflow team believe that many of the cargo transportation goals of the UAM (Urban Air Mobility) movement could be accomplished by electric STOLs at around one third the operating cost. Due to the growing diversity of desired products and destinations that is coming with the rapid growth of ‘same-day’ e-commerce, there is becoming a growing need for middle-mile transportation that can transport items directly between warehouses quickly, without using traditional airports. Airflow believes it can meet this need through a combination of its proprietary aircraft and its accompanying logistics service for sellers of e-commerce products. Other use cases include rural delivery, medical supplies to remote areas, disaster relief, and military applications.

A diagram showing how cargo is traditionally moved between Distribution Centers (via semi-truck) versus how they will move with Airflow. Airflow eSTOLS will be 4X as fast as semi trucks at 1/3 the price of eVTOLs.

According to Marc Ausman, Founder & CEO of Airflow:

“The demand for same-day e-commerce continues to rise, and we’re building a new low-cost aerial capability to enable that growth. Our approach from the beginning is to focus on a simple aircraft design with well-defined new technology.”

Airflow’s first aircraft features a distributed electric motor propulsion system, a single-pilot set-up with automated pilot assistance, 250 miles of hybrid-electric range, 500lbs of cargo capacity, and an impressive take-off and landing distance of only 150 feet. The eSTOL is simple fixed-wing aircraft, which Airflow hopes will yield a quicker path through certification and development. The team believes that both the certification and development process combined will cost around $200 million USD, vs around a $700 Million price tag for eVTOLs with similar regional air mobility capabilities. Production is expected to begin on the aircraft in 2025.

In addition to their work together at the Airbus Vahana project, Airflow’s founders also held previous experience at companies like?Eclipse Aviation, Northrop Grumman, Airware, Scaled Composites, and even Uber Elevate.

The Airbus Vahana Project, where the five founders of Airflow worked previously.

Why it’s important:?The leaders of Airflow come from a depth of experience not just in aviation, but in the newly formed world of urban aerial mobility. Together, they have spotted a niche in this new industry (for middle-mile cargo transport) where capital could be deployed more efficiently through the use of simpler technologies. The new Airflow eSTOL, together with its accompanying logistics service, has extremely high potential in the growing short-distance transportation industry.