Pipistrel and Honeywell collaborate on urban air taxi

Honeywell’s pitch to serve the nascent Urban Air Mobility market is front-and-center on the company website. Design renderings released with the announcement with Pipistrel depict a three-seat prototype with ducted fans tucked into the wings for takeoff and landing, and a manta ray shape that incorporates airfoils for lift in forward flight driven by a tail-mounted pusher prop.

Slovenia-based Pipistrel is among the firms chosen by ride-sharing giant Uber to develop and pitch prototypes for aircraft to serve as air taxis capable of rooftop-to-rooftop service. The collaboration with Honeywell announced Jan. 24 means that the eVTOL design Pipistrel has in the works will feature Honeywell avionics, and gives Honeywell a foothold in the market.

“This is the beginning of a long-term relationship to collectively pursue the future of urban air mobility,” said Pipistrel Founder and President Ivo Boscarol, in the news release. “Honeywell’s expertise in integrated avionics and flight control systems, systems integration, certification and manufacturing, combined with our capabilities in designing and developing advanced light aircraft, makes us the perfect pairing to advance the urban air mobility market. Pipistrel was chosen to be one of Uber’s vehicle development partners for their urban mobility solution, and our VTOL features next generation propulsion technology for achieving embedded lift. We have the concept which unlocks cost-attractive eVTOL opportunity by addressing efficiency and noise hurdles in vehicle lift, hover, and cruise stages of flight.”

Pipistrel has a long history of electric aircraft development, having won NASA’s Green Flight Challenge in 2011 with an electric four-seater. The firm’s Vertical Solutions team has produced eight different designs since 2008, along with propulsion systems developed in conjunction with NASA and Siemens.