JENNA SCAFURI/HAI


“We think about the question of ‘why now?’


a lot at Bell,” says Scott Drennan, vice president of Bell’s innovation team. “We see this as market demand and technology coming together at the same time.”


State of eVTOL Industry Te Vertical Flight Society isn’t the only orga- nization planning for an eVTOL future. Over the last few years, several large OEMs have announced their intentions to produce eVTOL aircraft for the UAM market. “Te future of transport is vertical,” says


Zach Lovering, vice president of UAM systems at Airbus. Te OEM and its R&D arm, A3


, are


working on eVTOL and UAM projects, including Voom, an on-demand helicopter taxi service currently operating in São Paulo, Brazil, and Mexico City. Te company hopes to use the experience learned from Voom in its transition to eVTOL air taxis. Te Airbus eVTOL concept, CityAirbus,


completed ground tests in 2017. Airbus hopes to fly the four-seat design by June of this year. Te Bell Nexus, Bell’s air-taxi prototype, will


use hybrid-electric propulsion to create a flight range of about 150 miles at a cruise speed of 150 miles per hour. “Our initial vehicle will be completely autonomous, but keeping in mind certification and customer acceptance, we believe we’ll need a manned version to enter the market,” says Drennan. A mockup of the Nexus


director of the Vertical Flight Society. “We have been examining the potential for eVTOL for six years, and it’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen—it’s a matter of when.” Hirschberg explains that the time to explore


and embrace this technology is now. “We are currently experiencing huge advances in electric motors and batteries, as well as the modern- ization of design tools, computer simulation of fuselages, and all aspects of flight control that we didn’t have five to 10 years ago,” says Hirschberg. “Tere has even been discussion about moving to performance-based regulations and certification for aircraft, which would be a major game changer.”


aircraft was a prominent feature at the Bell booth in Atlanta. Bell is also developing autonomous pod transport vehicles for delivering goods to distribution centers or hubs.


From Concept to Reality


Tere has been a lot of hype surrounding eVTOL, with some companies announcing plans ambitious in timeline and scope, such as Uber’s projected UAM service by 2023 at a cost of $6 per mile.


Even eVTOL supporters agree that many of the details remain to be worked out. “Hype is good, to a certain extent,” says


Hirschberg. “It can get people excited and attract a lot of attention. But we need to address the challenges realistically. All this money and innovation that is coming into the aerospace industry from the outside is great, but we need to look at this frankly.” Infrastructure is one of the biggest consid-


erations moving forward. “Bell’s vision of on-demand mobility means we’d like to move people, things, and data from point A to point B as the customer demands,” says Drennan. “To do that, we need to go beyond just being an OEM and service provider to those vehicles. We need to think about things like operational models and infrastructure and pull them under one umbrella to succeed.” Airbus also acknowledges the need for


strategic planning. “To build a UAM system, you need a lot more than just aircraft,” says Lovering. “We need support and services, we have to deal with supply chain issues, and we need flight operations and air traffic manage- ment solutions.” Te aviation industry is no stranger to


innovation. With the right tools and the right planning, eVTOL and UAM could become trusted aviation technologies.


Safran is developing a Hybrid-Electric Propulsion System (HEPS) to power Bell’s Nexus. The turbo-generator uses a gas turbine and generator to produce energy, some of which is stored in batteries. In flight, energy provided by the turbo-generator and/or the batteries is distributed to multiple electrical motors that drive rotors to provide lift.


SPRING 2019 ROTOR 47


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80