Today the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC, ARJ21 & C919 jet manufacturer)’s Beijing Research Center unveiled the fuel cell-powered eVTOL prototype. Official press release not yet published. Will update when new information come out. A 50% sub-scale model has flown for a while.
Lilium’s founder and CEO Daniel Wiegand recently had an interview with a German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine”. Daniel revealed quite some interesting information in this interview such as their product development plan and fund raising situation and IPO plan. The link is in German but you can use google translate to read it:
The startup from South Burlington, Vermont, USA (www.beta.team) presented this prototype earlier this month. The aircraft looks a bit like a cross bread between a conventional helicopter, a fixed wing aircraft and some other existing lift and cruise designs.
They did fly their first eVTOL Prototype in 2018 based on a modified Fixed Wing Aircraft.
The 4th International e-flight-forum China is ramping up as life streamed bilingual online Forum from december 08-10 three half days from 8:30-13:00 CET. more info at www.e-flight-forum.com.
Four years after Uber published the first Elevate whitepaper in October 2016 which literally launched eVTOL and UAM market, now Uber Elevate published a new whitepaper named “Uber Air: Designing for the Community”. As several eVTOL companies including both Uber Elevate partners and non-partners have been in the process of certification, it should be no surprise that Uber Elevate now shift its focus to ecosystem and community build up to prepare for the initial operation in the near future.
This whitepaper PDF file is available for downloading at:
on September 30, 2020 the Chinese eVTOL manufactuer Ehang unveil a large capacity cargo eVTOL drone based on its “216” passenger eVTOL called “216 cargo model” which has 200kg payload 200kg and has been test flying in China. Ehang intends to use it for various logistics delivery cases.
On 21 September 2020, Airbus presented three ZEROe airplane concepts which are all hydrogen hybrid aircraft. They are powered by hydrogen combustion through modified gas-turbine engines. Liquid hydrogen is used as fuel for combustion with oxygen. Airbus plans to to develop the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035.
Turfan concept: Two hybrid hydrogen turbofan engines provide thrust. The liquid hydrogen storage and distribution system is located behind the rear pressure bulkhead.
Turboprop concept: Two hybrid hydrogen turboprop engines, which drive the six bladed propellers, provide thrust. The liquid hydrogen storage and distribution system is located behind the rear pressure bulkhead.
The exceptionally wide interior opens up multiple options for hydrogen storage and distribution. Here, the liquid hydrogen storage tanks are stored underneath the wings. Two hybrid hydrogen turbofan engines provide thrust.
On 15 September 2020 MagniX annouced that it was selected as the motor suppler for the hydrogen-powered Dash-8 airplane project of Universal Hydrogen which was recently founded by the former UTC CTO Paul Eremenko.
Universal Hydrogen is developing a retrofit kit for the De Havilland Canada DHC8-Q300, aka “Dash-8”,to a hydrogen fuel cell electric powertrain.
MagniX will develop and supply two megawatt-class electric propulsion system to be installed on each wing of Dash-8.
“There is a clear need for a step change in emissions reduction in commercial aviation, and hydrogen-based, carbon-free power is the future of the industry,” said Paul Eremenko, co-founder and CEO of Universal Hydrogen. “When looking for our propulsion partner, magniX stood out as a clear, proven leader with a track-record of delivering the best in aerospace-grade electric propulsion. We look forward to watching the successful flights of our fully carbon-free Dash 8.”
“Universal Hydrogen, through its hydrogen transport and distribution infrastructure solution, is on a path to change the way regional flight is achieved, and transform it from decades-old, expensive, polluting technology to low-cost clean solutions,” said Roei Ganzarski, CEO of magniX. “The magniX team is inspired by the synergies between our mission and that of Universal Hydrogen. Together, we will bring scalable, proven technology to the next level of electric aviation.”
