Electric aerial racing series may take off soon
Alauda’s plans to create a racing series using electric VTOLs is nearing fruition. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed, a series of prototypes and technical details were revealed.
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EASA releases new electric aircraft regulations
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has adopted a framework plan for battery electric and hybrid electric vertical take-off aircraft in Europe: With the “Special Condition”, the designers now have the first specifications for this group of aircraft.
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Paris may offer flying cabs by Airbus at 2024 Olympics
Airbus, Aeroports de Paris and the Paris Transport Authority are exploring the feasibility of using autonomous flying taxis to carry visitors from Charles de Gaulle Airport into the city during the 2024 Olympics.
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Melbourne to pilot Uber Air’s flying taxis
Uber has selected Australia as the first “international market” for its planned e-flight taxi service Uber Air. Melbourne be the third city to pilot the program following Dallas and Los Angeles. Test flights are scheduled to start next year and commercial operations from 2023.
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Agent 007 eat your heart out
The Israeli-American company NFT (Next Future Transportation) has introduced a flying electric car concept called the “Aska” that uses a gasoline range extender to reach a range of 550 km at a top speed of 200 kph. The first test flight is planned for 2020 with a view to market launch in 2025, with a […]
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Alaka’i presents fuel cell air taxi
The US startup Alaka’i Technologies has presented the concept of a fuel cell air taxi called Skai, which was developed together with the BMW brand Designworks. It offers space for five passengers, is powered by six electric motors and is expected to have a range of around 400 miles (640 km).
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Volocopter to show air taxi landing platform in Singapore
Volocopter and British Skyports plan to complete the first port for electric air taxis before the end of this year. The presentation is planned during the public test flights Volocopter has announced for the second half of the year in Singapore.
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Lilium’s five-seated air taxi completes maiden flight
Lilium has presented their new electrically powered flying taxi prototype for the first time, which is designed to carry five passengers. At the beginning of May, the team also completed its maiden flight with the new aircraft.
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Boeing VTOL takes test flight as flying taxi
Boeing has absolved a successful test flight with a VTOL that they now call Passenger Air Vehicle (PAV). Boeing announced that the prototype has just completed a controlled takeoff, hover and landing during the test conducted in Manassas, Virginia.
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Bell Nexus VTOL to be new flying Uber taxi by 2020
US helicopter manufacturer Bell Helicopter presented a vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) with hybrid-electric propulsion for five passengers at the CES 2019 under the name Bell Nexus. Bell has been cooperating with Uber for their planned flying cab since 2017.
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German rescue service ADAC testing VTOL
The German ADAC Luftrettung, that is the air rescue service, is planning to test manned electric multi-copters as rescue vehicles in two states in Germany, namely Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate. Volocopter’s electric VTOL will be used for the pilot.
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FAA legalises ultralight Hoverbike for real
At the start of 2017, we told you about a hoverbike called Scorpion. Back then the company from Russia was ahead of the game of flying cars, although their VTOL is more of a hovering jet ski. Nonetheless, at least they had a flying prototype and have since advanced.
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Volocopter plans Singapore test flights in 2019
The German aviation startup Volocopter is planning test flights in the centre of Singapore for the second half of 2019. The series of tests will focus on urban flight conditions and will validate the use of an electric aircraft in an urban environment. The next step will then be public demonstration flights.
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Air taxi Cora: Kitty Hawk teams up with Air New Zealand
Kitty Hawk subsidiary Zephyr Airworks has signed a cooperation agreement with Air New Zealand as both partners want to work on setting up an air taxi service with self-flying electric aircrafts. We remember: About half a year ago, Kitty Hawk unveiled its electrically powered autonomous air taxi Cora.
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Geely-backed Terrafugia accepting orders for flying car
Terrafugia is taking pre-orders for their hybrid plane that mixes two worlds in every sense. The Transition is said to switch from road to air operation in less than a minute and moves from partially electric driving to conventional flying.
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UK: Air taxi firm to offer inter-city flights in eVTOL (video)
Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace is the latest contender in the race to launch flying cabs for urbanites. Their electric VTOL is to be fit to carry passengers on short, inter-city flights within the next four years and a first prototype underwent testing.
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Japan aims to take off with flying cars
The Japanese government is working on founding an industry consortium to realise electrified flying car technology. A total of 21 companies are said to be involved, including Uber, Airbus and Boeing.
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Aston Martin & RR both envisioning luxurious air taxis
Aston Martin presents the Vision Volante Concept, a study of a premium VTOL with hybrid propulsion. Whether the three-seater will ever take-off on a mass scale is uncertain. Yet Aston is on to something as Rolls-Royce also issued their version of an air taxi.
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Audi & Airbus launch air taxi test project in Europe
Audi homebase Ingolstadt is to become a first testbed for VTOLs jointly developed with Airbus. Their Urban Air Mobility project is part of a European initiative that includes other cities such as Geneva or Hamburg.
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Uber to test air taxis in Paris
The ride-share company Uber is working on the development of electric air taxis and announced their first research and development center outside of the USA, which will open in Paris in Fall this year.
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Uber presents tentative air taxi design
Uber has brought their latest flying cab design to their second annual Elevate conference in Los Angeles. The ride hail company hopes to be using their drone-like “flying car” for personal taxi transport as of 2023.
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AeroMobil presents flying car with VTOL capability
The Slovakian company AeroMobil has presented their concept for a flying car. The AeroMobil 5.0 VTOL is a purely electric four-seater, that can take off and land vertically. It is to be market ready in the next 7 to 10 years.
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Kitty Hawk’s electric flying cab called Cora takes off
Backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, Kitty Hawk formerly known as Zee-Aero, has finally launched its electric, autonomous air taxi Cora. It is a VTOL with two seats and twelve electric motors and got the backing of New Zealand’s new prime minister.
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Airbus Vahana undergoes first flight tests (Video)
Recently Airbus launched a series of tests with their autonomous, electric vertical-take-off-and-landing aircraft, although they were only about a minute in duration, and only a few meters above the ground. A video shows the VTOL in action.
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Electric airplane startup Joby generates 100 million dollars
Joby Aviation is another new name in the electric aviation business and is coming in hot with an impressive 100 million dollars in funding and backers such as Intel, Toyota and JetBlue. Plans include an all-electric, five seated vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
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AirSpaceX presents flying electric taxi for four at NAIAS
AirSpaceX, previews its electric flying cab Mobi-One in Detroit. The VTOL is to carry up to 4 passengers plus luggage between airports and U.S. cities with roll-out set for 2026.
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Racing in the sky with VTOL by Alauda
Australian Alauda presents its electric aircraft Mark 1 Airspeeder. And to launch said VTOL, the company made the unusual proposition to set up the very first flying car race in the desert.
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Electric aircraft for less than 100,000 dollars? (Video)
With its electric manned drone, California company Passenger Drone wants to enter the aircraft market by 2019. As reported, the two-seater powered by 16 electric motors completed its first test flights in October.
WeiterlesenHyundai, Amazon, Plug Power, Ballard, VTOL.
Hyundai to develop solid-state batteries? The Korean car manufacturer readies battery tech based on solid rather than liquid electrolytes, Korea Herold reports referring to insider information. Hyundai apparently operates pilot production facilities already but does not intend to go serial before 2025. Also Samsung SDI und LG Chem are said to research solid-state batteries as well as Toyota and BMW.
theinvestor.co.kr
Amazon tasks Plug Power: Plug Power gains a new order of no other than Amazon, who plans to deploy a fleet of H2 forklifts in 11 of its logistics centres. Delivering the corresponding tech, PlugPower estimates Amazon will spend 70m dollar on the deal in 2017 and likely twice that next year. Furthermore, Amazon is authorised to acquire 23% of the company if spending exceeds 600m dollars.
reuters.com, ir.plugpower.com
11m dollar deal for Ballard: Canadian Ballard Power Systems signed an 11m dollar order for 200 FCVeloCity systems to be delivered this year for the Chinese market. Buyer is Broad-Ocean, who intends to use them for demonstrations of H2 buses and industrial vehicles in China.
ballard.com
18 rotor drone production ready: German start-up e-volo has readied its 18 rotor electric VTOL and hopes it will be launched and authorised for commercial passenger transport soon. On top, the two-seated model shall serve the air sport market. A four-seater model is planned, too.
theverge.com