Avionics News October 57-10 - 41

in aviation can help aviation and aerospace evolve,"
Graham said. "This will never happen again in my
lifetime, so I am trying to give stick and rudder advice to
help these companies."
Uber Elevate, for example, aims to create an Uber Air
service in big cities using eVTOL aircraft supplied by
other companies making the aircraft to Uber specifications.
It's goal is to have flights starting in 2023 with certified
aircraft in revenue-producing operations. Wait for it: You
may have to wait longer than that based on the opinions of
a number of experts consulted for this article.
The air vehicles carrying a pilot in initial operations
for Uber with three to four passengers are to operate
entirely on battery-electric energy storage to perform
safe vertical takeoffs and landings and short duration
hover. To land on skyports in urban areas, an eVTOL
would have to measure no more than 50 feet in its
maximum dimension including fully extended rotors.
The aircraft need to have 60 miles of range with reserves
while taking off and hovering at 5,000 feet density
altitude. For more on these specifications, visit tinyurl.
com/y7nfa3je. Uber plans to roll out its first operations in
Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, in 2023.
The good news for Aircraft Electronics Association
repair shops about drones that carry people, or a ton of
cargo, will rely on a lot of conventional, off-the-shelf
avionics. These commercial drones with significant
payloads compared to delivery drones carrying small
packages are the ones Robotic Skies wants to funnel to
repair shops that join its network so they can service the
avionics systems.
When the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration first started researching the air taxi niche,
it called the area of investigation urban air mobility. Now
that everyone realizes cargo operations may start first,
NASA has renamed the area of research advanced air
mobility. NASA wants to help create an air transportation
system with new-entrant air vehicles to move people
and cargo between places previously not served or
underserved - whether that means local, regional or
between regions or cities. Urban air mobility is now a
subset of AAM.
If you would prefer to fly on an eVTOL that is
produced with the quality and reliability of a Toyota
automobile, that may now be possible. Toyota joined
Joby Aviation as the lead investor and partner in January
and will be sharing its expertise in automotive-scale

manufacturing with the company, according to Joby
answers to questions via email. Toyota is investing $394
million in the air vehicle company.
Joby has been working on an eVTOL aircraft capable
of carrying four passengers and a pilot for a decade and
is one of the longest-term players in this market. It is
currently flying a prototype to prove the operational
scheme of its business model, but it has not selected
target cities for the launch of operations yet. Joby is
the first of eight aircraft makers who are partnered with
Uber Elevate to commit to beginning operations in 2023.
Funding to date is $720 million, and more will be needed
as Joby has been working with the Federal Aviation
Administration and other regulators to make sure the
aircraft fits into existing and future air traffic systems.
An avionics vendor has not yet been announced.
According to Joby, the aircraft will be able to fly 150
miles on a single charge and will be 100 times quieter
than a conventional aircraft during vertical takeoff and
landings while being "near silent" during flyover. The
aircraft will be type certified and maintained under Part
43/119, and the company plans to establish a Part 135
commercial aircraft operation once the design is certified.
The aircraft will be able to operate to thousands of
established public use airports and heliports, Joby noted.
Honeywell and other traditional avionics companies
are in hot pursuit of the business opportunities presented
by air taxis and similar size cargo carriers. Honeywell
sees this brand-new market as a big opportunity and will
be focusing on providing avionics, propulsion systems
and thermal management.
"Every urban air taxi being developed right now
envisions having a pilot in the first go-round," said
Stephane Fymat, vice president and general manager of
Urban Air Mobility and Unmanned Aerial Systems at
Honeywell. "They envision mostly traditional avionics
in the cockpit, but those avionics will have to evolve
and be applied to their vehicle," Fymat said. "Instead of
cylinder-head temperature, avionics will show battery
charge level. The rest of the avionics in the beginning
will be very much the same."
The new vehicles may have fly-by-wire flight control
systems with everything becoming more software driven.
"If it is harder and fewer people are doing the repairs,
that may make it more interesting to you (as a shop
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AVIONICS NEWS

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OCTOBER

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Avionics News October 57-10

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