EVIATION - how electric aviation will shape our future

Let´s start this intellectual game with looking at the latest development in cars and aircraft:

 

With cars it is pretty obvious that there is a lot electrification going on throughout the whole car industry for quite some years now. Some major car manufactures and many more start-ups of smaller and larger scale have been trying hard to put some half-decent electric cars on our roads, that are able to fulfil some of our daily needs. Ok, in the end it felt as if Tesla had to show the rest of this mighty industry how to wow people with numerous technological innovations placed around their electric drive train. 

 

Although not every single conservative mind might be convinced by know that electric is going to be the near future for almost all our cars, we are pretty convinced that the transition is not going to stop. Some of the reasons being these mostly battery powered cars do not only make a lot sense in respect of our carbon footprint, but also for our individual driving experience, the ongoing digitalisation of the car and the further integration of self driving technology. For all car nuts out there: No worries, for sure there will remain some smaller domain during the years to come for combustion engines, thinking of special purpose vehicle, classic and collector cars and some more.

 

But having said this, the majority of our cars will soon drive electric. So how about planes and aircraft in general?

 

Having achieved so many technological breakthroughs especially at the beginning of the the aircraft industry´s journey, it had become a very tough place for proper innovation by the turn of the century. Don´t get me wrong here. Of course, like in the car industry, there have been so many further improvements made and a tremendously high level of perfection to the creations of this industrials sector seem inherent by now, which just makes sense and enables save travelling for all of us. But that sort of perfection seemed to also somehow block the thinking off the beaten track.

 

Well, that kind of thinking for sure did happen in some rather quiet places, but the industry itself was not really into it and didn't concede any chances for concepts which did not match their common way of approaching their designs. But suddenly batteries became more and more powerful and some remote drones arose. These innovations seemed to spark the creativity of the sector once more and we are now seeing more than 200 interesting concepts for electrical vertical take off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) and air taxis arising all around the globe. 

 

Next to that, more and more people also understand the importance of conventional planes to also develop further and become more sustainable. We are already seeing some very promising electrification of some smaller planes and in addition some interesting concepts and prototypes for hydrogen or battery powered electric aircraft of various size. .... seem to be very interesting projects among many others. 

 

In other words: Electrification is also a big thing in todays aircraft industry. Even better: Innovation here often seems pretty different to the car industry, where the current approach of some manufacturers is to just offering a pretty box standard car with a electric drivetrain option next to the conventional combustion versions. In Aviation electrification could become even more disruptive than in the car industry. By today most people are probably more aware of all kind of  eVTOLs, Air Taxis and Passenger Drones (UAV) that are currently under development, than of the electrification approaches for the more traditional built planes. 

 

And there are indeed so many promising concepts and companies out there, creating different aircrafts for various markets. Just think about the Ehang 184 and the Volocopter, the Kittyhwak and the Joby eVTOL and of course the Lilium jet, just to mention a few of them. Many of them are aiming for a similar commuter market to carrying about 1-6 passenger at short or mid distances. And we are pretty sure some of these approaches are going to replace conventional Helicopters and smaller Planes or Lear Jets in the near future. And other may replace some of the electric taxis on the ground.

A few of these companies even claim that mass production of their aircraft will  bring the prices down the area of cars. 

 

Very interesting and also very important is the fact that there is are many thoughts also spent to the surveillance of all that new air traffic to arise soon. E.G. ...

 

Another group of avionic innovators of course do work rather creative and playful, building single seater drones or multicopter, sometimes just for the sake of fun and racing competition. E.G. Swedish Jetson One, Koncepto Milenya, Big Drone of Drone Champions AG. Does that ring a bell? 

 

If just some of the many concepts will take off and do their proper job as a air taxi and just in case the idea of producing these eVTOL anywhere near the price of, lets say a luxury car, it seems pretty obvious that these concepts are not only able to replace private Helicopter and small Airplanes, but also hyper cars and many upper class vehicles. We assume they will enter a niche in between Helicopters and luxury cars and they are going to take their share of either side. These vehicles will either have  multicopter arrangement (compare the jetson one, which is already a kind of flying motorbike at a price around 100000 EUR). or wings with ducted fans as used by the ilium aircraft. A very elegant and natural looking approach. 

 

So why not starting to sketch flying cars? No wheels any more, but wings, fans and propellers.