Mark Huber

Government-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries is developing the T629 all-electric, unmanned helicopter for military applications such as search and rescue, anti-ship, and anti-submarine warfare.

The Airbus VSR700 optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) recently made fully autonomous takeoff and landing (ATOL) approaches to and from a DeckMotion moving platform simulator—a pitching, yawing surface, mounted on a trailer to simulate the conditions of a moving ship deck. The small rotorcraft, derived from the Helicopteres Guimbal Cabri G2, used Airbus’s DeckFinder technology to locate and interface with the DeckMotion simulator. 

In a recent presentation to the Vertical Flight Society's Forum 76 conference, transportation consultant Denis Heckmann detailed environmental, engineering, and cost obstacles to the launch of eVTOL aircraft operations in some locations.

Price Systems analyst Nate Sirirojvisuth challenged some of the core assumptions made by advocates of advanced air mobility business models. His new report spells out the questions that he says have to be addressed to provide a realistic assessment of the market potential for eVTOL aircraft services in areas such as the northeastern U.S.

The U.S. government's ban on some foreign-made drones appears to be part of a wider effort aimed at reducing Chinese involvement in the unmanned air systems sector. This raises the question of whether similar moves might be made to block China's role in the development of autonomous eVTOL aircraft.

Although FAA's proposed rules requiring remote identification for unmanned aerial systems are mainly geared towards relatively smalled models in the first instance, the scope of what the agency proposed back on December 31, 2019, has significant ramifications for the development of larger eVTOL aircraft.

Ross Perot, Jr. believes the 26,000-acre Fort Worth Alliance airport complex is just the place to develop and test a new generation of delivery drones and passenger eVTOL aircraft. Beginning in the 1980s, Perot’s Hillwood Development donated the land for the public-use airport and developed adjacent industrial, retail, and 10,000 residential properties.

Battery technology is still falling short as a long-term answer to the needs of electric aircraft. Lighter, more capable batteries--or alternatives like hydrogen fuel cells--will be needed to allow aircraft to fulfill their potential to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint. For now, hybrid electric propulsion seems the most viable option for many new aircraft developers.

Leading aviation regulators, including FAA in the U.S. and EASA in Europe, are stepping up their engagement with the electric vertical takeoff and landing and urban air mobility sector about how rules and standards will be set and met. But much work remains to be done on this front, and some companies appear to have underestimated how complex this could be.