In today’s video, I’m gonna be talking about the top 5 electric vertical takeoff and landing companies or otherwise known as electric VTOL’s. For starters there are over 90 electric VTOL concepts and they range from mounts like a bike all the way to Jets. Let’s start with number 5. Meet the Hexa from Lyft. Looking for your own personal flying machine that’s simple to fly and can be bought today?
Well, you just found it. Lyft from Hexa is an all-electric veto single passenger wingless multicopter aimed primarily at tourism and short distance travel. It completed its first manned test flight in November 2018 and has an added bonus, it can float! It uses 18 propellers to carry a 250 pound passenger for up to 15 minutes while retaining 25% battery life.
The Hexa is semi-autonomous and it’s stability is accomplished by flight control computers.
After training in Lyft’s virtual reality simulators, the passenger can use the single three axis joystick or can engage an autopilot mode using a small touchscreen. The triple-redundant flight computer system continuously calculates the energy required to return to home so regardless of the pilot’s actions, the Hexa will automatically return and land while the battery still has a sufficient return charge for safety.
It can automatically land in designated safe areas or be controlled remotely by Lyft trained safety pilots. The Hexa that can also fly with up to six motors disabled and is also equipped with an autonomous ballistic parachute. Lyft was founded by Matt Jason in 2017 in Budapest.
Their main headquarters now are in Austin Texas. Right now the purchase price is $495,000. Introducing the Pegasus from Aurora. Pegasus is an all-electric six engine VTOL. It uses 9 propellers to fly up to 180 km/h around 80 kilometers per flight.
It currently seats two with a goal of seating 4 passengers in the future It can be flown autonomously or by pilot and can carry roughly 230 kilograms. For safety, it uses an autoland function. Aurora was founded by John Langford the third in 1989 and was later acquired by Boeing. Aurora plans to both manufacture the plane as well as operate it as a point-to-point on-demand regional air taxi service.
They already partnered with uber and it’s estimated to be fully operational by 2023.
It is not available for individual sale The e hang 216 is an all-electric 16 motor VTOL. It gets its name from its two seats and 16 propellers. It uses those 16 propellers to fly up to 130 km/h. That’s about 21 minutes of total flight time. It seats 2 and is flown autonomously.
They can carry about 260 kilograms. For safety, it uses distributed electric propulsion. It utilizes multiple propellers and motors to provide safety through redundancy for its passengers. If one or two motors or propellers fail, the other working propellers can safely land the aircraft.
The e-hang 216 has a multitude of sensors and navigation equipment allowing the aircraft to make smart decisions depending upon weather and obstacles during the flight.
Having the e-hang command control centers at your fingertips also increases the safety of the aircraft. The e-hang 216 was based off of a previous model the e- hang 184. Which had 1 seat, 8 propellers and 4 arms. And beyond that they have a single passenger e-hang 116 in production. e-hang was co-founded by Kwazii who and yi Fang Jung in 2014.
Their headquarters is based in Guangzhou China and main manufacturing facility is in Austria. They’re looking to expand vehicle production to North America and Asia. E-hang manufactures and currently sells the planes as a commercial vehicle. It is not available for individual sale. The city Airbus is an all-electric 8 engine VTOL.
It uses 8 tiltrotors to fly up to 120 km/h for around 241 kilometers per flight. And as a max flight time of 15 minutes and can carry 250 kilograms. It seats 4 passengers with complete autonomous flight.For safety it uses distributed electric propulsion (DEP), provide safety through redundancy for its passengers and for its cargo. City Airbus is one of two electric VTOLs Airbus will potentially produce.
The other is the single-seat vahana.
On Saturday December 21st 2019 the first uncrewed untethered flight of the city Airbus was made in Bavaria Germany. City Airbus was created by Airbus in 2017. Airbus plans to both manufacture the aircraft as well as operate it as a point-to-point on-demand regional air taxi service. It is not available for individual sale.
And finally the lilium jet. Lilium is a german based startup co-founded in 2015 by four aerospace engineers and product designers. To date, the company has raised more than $375 million in funding. It seeks to raise another 1 to $250 million more. After a full-scale prototype named eagle completed a series of successful unmanned test flights in April 2017, it then moved forward with the 5 seater lilium jet.
The lilium jet is an all-electric 36 engine fixed-wing VTOL plane. It uses 36 Douglas fans to fly up to 300 km/h for around 300 kilometers per flight.
It seats a pilot and four passengers and is designed to be fully autonomous in the future. On May 16 2019, lilium revealed that they had their first untethered and unmanned flight which took place on May 4th 2019 at an airport in Munich Germany. Extensive ground testing took place before its maiden flight.
Lilium plans to both manufacture the jet and operate it as a point-to-point on-demand regional air taxi service. The company states that with their aerial ride-sharing operations a person can increase their rates of life by a factor of 25 miles. Could this be the next uber or lift of the sky with their on-demand air transportation? It’s estimated to be fully operational by 2025. It is not available for individual sale.
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