Future flight: eVTOL excitement
Lilium’s Florida Vertiport, Volocopter certification, and Joby’s rise
German air-taxi startup Volocopter—which has spent 10 years testing full-scale versions of its 18-motor/rotor, 19-nautical-mile, 60-knot, two-passenger VoloCity eVTOL—announced that the FAA has accepted its application for a type certificate. The company says it is also currently in the process of receiving European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification for the VoloCity. According to a press release, these two events set the stage for Volocopter to bring its electric air taxi service to the American market.
Volocopter expects EASA, then FAA certification for commercial launch in “the next two to three years,” developments that would position the VoloCity to be the first to enter the electric air taxi market. Since 2011, Volocopter has completed more than 1,000 test flights and conducted public demonstrations of the VoloCity in Singapore, Dubai, and Helsinki. “We are the ‘Pioneer of Urban Air Mobility [UAM],’” said Florian Reuter, Volocopter’s CEO. “Certification is the key to this market, and we are excited to begin the process of seeking approval from the FAA to introduce this innovative era of mobility not only in Europe and Asia, but also in the U.S.”
Certification is indeed essential, but eVTOLs must also have an infrastructure to develop a true transportation network, centered on what has come to be called “vertiports.” Hyundai has come up with an Urban Air Port concept that would provide a network of hubs and landing sites for its SA–1 eVTOL air taxi, and link center-city pickup stops to those hubs by an autonomous shuttle. Electrically powered, of course.
Now another company, Lilium, is collaborating with Ferrovial, a global infrastructure firm with experience in airport design and construction, to create at least 10 vertiports in the United States. The first vertiports will connect locations in Florida. The first location, in South Florida, was expected to be announced in spring 2021. “Nearly all 20 million Floridians will live within 30 minutes of our vertiports, and the 140 million annual visitors to the Sunshine State will have a high-speed option available to travel to their destinations,” the company said. A full-scale demonstrator of the Lilium Jet—a five-seater powered by 36 electrically driven jet engines—had its first flight in May 2019. Certification of the 162-knot, 162-nm aircraft is expected by 2024, with entry into service in 2025.
A prototype of the Lilium Jet was destroyed in an unexplained ground fire in February 2020. There were no injuries. If this jogs your memory, it’s because the first prototype of the Eviation Alice—a 240-knot, composite-construction, nine-passenger, fixed-wing design powered by three electric motors—was also destroyed in a ground fire just one month earlier. A lithium ion battery pack reportedly experienced a thermal runaway during a test procedure. Again, there were no injuries.
By far the biggest news in the eVTOL arena was Uber Elevate’s $75 million investment in Joby Aviation, makers of the S4, a 170-knot, 150-nm, five-seat eVTOL. Essentially, Uber walked away from its ambitious concept of a nationwide airborne ride-sharing service, received a 26-percent stake in Joby, and invested another $400 million in Aurora Innovation, a company targeting autonomous trucking and robotaxi services. Uber retains an interest in the endeavor but focuses on its core ride-hailing business.
Uber wasn’t the only big investor in Joby. Toyota, Intel, and JetBlue have together pumped another $700 million into the company. Within the urban air mobility segment, consolidation and shakeouts now seem to be in ascendance, with large corporations taking a bigger role. That, and an increased interest in hydrogen power. Through all of this, designers and potential manufacturers adhere to a culture of tightly managed news. For all the buzz about eVTOLs and UAM, there have been no first-person pilot evaluations or other on-scene reporting. With one notable exception: Guy Norris of Aviation Week and Space Technology managed to penetrate Joby’s cone of silence, witnessed a test flight, and even flew a simulator. His review was favorable. I am jealous. Perhaps I’ll be the next to sample the S4, or whatever else Joby is flying these days. I’m certain that AOPA’s 300,000-plus pilot-members would like to see what all the fuss is about.
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EHang ups and downs
EHang, a Guangzhou, China-based eVTOL firm, has been conducting flight trials and demonstrations of its EH216 AAV (autonomous aerial vehicle), and expects its Chinese certification in mid-2021. After an initial public offering in 2019, the company is now listed on Nasdaq (ticker symbol: EH).
As a pilotless eVTOL, the EHang is being pushed as a vehicle specializing in offshore oil-platform supply, organ transport, and other logistical operations, along with firefighting missions. EHang says the EH216 has so far flown on 10,000 trial flights, as well as on 42 demonstration flights in China and eight other nations. A larger version, one optimized for air taxi operations, is still in the future. Presumably, it will have more than the EH216’s two seats.
But a recent report by Wolfpack Research asserted that sales to EHang’s principal customer, Kunxiang Intelligent Technology Ltd., were inflated to boost EHang’s stock price, and that Kunxiang hadn’t in fact fulfilled its purchase obligations. Some have said that Kunxiang itself was a sham customer, and that the whole affair was a stock promotion. The Wolfpack report went so far as to claim that EHang has lied about its products, manufacturing, partnerships, and revenues. EHang responded by saying it’s committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate governance.
EHang’s stock has had a wild ride in 2021, reaching a zenith of $124 per share on February 12, 2021—just days before the Wolfpack report came out. Then the stock dropped to a low of $42 per share as of March. It’s not clear yet if or how the recent activity in the broader eVTOL market may have been a factor. As with everything else in the eVTOL segment, these developments bear watching. In the meantime, other industry-watchers rate EHang as one of the brands most likely to succeed. —TAH
EHang EH216
Powerplant: All-electric
Propeller configuration: 16 lift/thrust rotors (8 dual rotors)
Wing span: 18 ft 4 in
Length: 5 ft 9 in
Main frame: Reinforced composite material with carbon fiber and epoxy
Max takeoff weight: 1,322 lb
Passenger/payload: 2 pax (485 lb total payload)
Top speed: 80 mph
Range: 22 sm with max payload
Cruising altitude: 1,600 ft agl
Flight endurance: 25 min (est.)
Charging time: 1 hr
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