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Keeping Up with the Jetsons
compiled by American Energy Society Managing Editor, Katy McCune
The Jetsons, with their flying cars and automated lifestyles, set high expectations of future air travel for most kids who grew up with the comic. However, George Jetson’s aerocar was not necessarily a good predictor of future technology, at least not until now. New, cheap electric propulsion technologies and simpler crafts that move people and cargo across the city skies are moving us a step closer to this science fiction vision. AES editors highlight three new transportation technologies that go where the Jetson's never could.
1. Flying Car Startup Bets Hydrogen Can Outdo Batteries
1. Flying Car Startup Bets Hydrogen Can Outdo Batteries
Hydrogen fuel cells have had a hard time making inroads as power sources for ground-based electric vehicles, but things are starting to look up for the zero-emission propulsion tech. A new air taxi startup, Alaka’i Technologies, recently unveiled a liquid-hydrogen-powered, five-passenger electric aircraft that it claims will be more efficient and powerful than the battery-powered aircraft its many competitors are developing. The Massachusetts-based “flying car” company, led by veterans of NASA, Raytheon, Airbus, Boeing, and the Department of Defense, says the final product will be able to fly for up to four hours and cover 400 miles on a single load of fuel, which can be replenished in 10 minutes at a hydrogen fueling station.
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Hydrogen, of course, has a downside, namely the fact that even though the universe has an enormous amount of it there’s not much available infrastructure to support it. Indeed, a lack of fueling infrastructure has hindered hydrogen ground vehicles. But aircraft may have an easier time. Instead of relying on fueling stations on every corner, aircraft can have more centralized fueling centers supplied by tanker trucks.
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Another potential roadblock could be hardware costs. Alaka’i says the first aircraft will be piloted, with highly automated and fully autonomous operation coming later. The argument for fuel cells boils down to energy density: A pound of compressed hydrogen contains over 200 times more energy than a pound of battery, says Alaka’i founder Brian Morrison. That means the Skai can meet the speed, range, and payload requirements that Alaka’i thinks will make it competitive while saving a lot of weight—a top-line consideration for anything that flies.
It’s targeting a price around $200,000, though early models will likely be much pricier, and a production volume on the order of 10,000 a year. That’s a huge number—no manufacturer makes more than 700 aircraft annually—but consistent with what other air-taxi developers say will be needed to make an Uber-like system economically viable. To get this thing off the ground, Alaka’i plans to skip air taxi service early on, focusing instead on emergency services, search and rescue missions, and hauling cargo, roles that don’t require the same certification standards as passenger flight.
2. Flying Taxi Takes Off for the First Time
It’s targeting a price around $200,000, though early models will likely be much pricier, and a production volume on the order of 10,000 a year. That’s a huge number—no manufacturer makes more than 700 aircraft annually—but consistent with what other air-taxi developers say will be needed to make an Uber-like system economically viable. To get this thing off the ground, Alaka’i plans to skip air taxi service early on, focusing instead on emergency services, search and rescue missions, and hauling cargo, roles that don’t require the same certification standards as passenger flight.
2. Flying Taxi Takes Off for the First Time
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The latest would-be air taxi of the future has taken to the sky: Lilium, a Munich-based start-up with a vertical-takeoff-and-landing prototype, made its first flight this spring. Though Lilium says the five-seat electric can fly 186 miles in an hour, its first flight, like most such tests, was modest. Operated by remote control, it lifted off, hovered a few yards above the ground, and landed.
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The Lilium does away with the sort of tools that conventional planes use to control their movement, including the vertical stabilizer, ailerons, or elevator. Instead, the “Lilium Jet” uses 36 electric-powered ducted fans. Inside each, a small rotor ingests air from the front and pushes it out of the rear at higher speeds. They’re not technically jet engines (so the aircraft isn’t a “jet”). The lack of spinning blades improves efficiency, reduces noise, and eliminates the risk of turning passing birds into chop suey. It relies on a flight-control computer that will angle the motors in different directions - the forward motors handle pitching the nose up and down and those on the wing manage roll movements. The aircraft rotates on its axis in a hover by varying the speed of rotors, just as consumer quadcopter drones do. And for added safety, the aircraft uses a triple-redundant flight-control computer, is shaped to allow for gliding in the event of a complete power failure, and will carry a ballistic parachute (just in case).
With the first flight now a memory, Lilium will run its aircraft through increasingly complex maneuvers, including the transition between vertical and horizontal flight, runs between cities, in inclement weather, and with a variety of degrees of automation. Lilium cofounder and CEO Daniel Wiegand aims to build an on-demand air taxi service in just a few years, with a network of launch and landing pads across a few cities to start, and a larger operational service by 2025. To start, humans will serve as pilots, but Lilium says its autonomous technology is nearly ready and it’s just waiting for regulators to allow them to go pilot-free. If all goes well, passengers will experience the flights in trials well ahead of the 2025 target for a fully operational service.
3. Tap-to-Fly Helicopter Takes Off
With the first flight now a memory, Lilium will run its aircraft through increasingly complex maneuvers, including the transition between vertical and horizontal flight, runs between cities, in inclement weather, and with a variety of degrees of automation. Lilium cofounder and CEO Daniel Wiegand aims to build an on-demand air taxi service in just a few years, with a network of launch and landing pads across a few cities to start, and a larger operational service by 2025. To start, humans will serve as pilots, but Lilium says its autonomous technology is nearly ready and it’s just waiting for regulators to allow them to go pilot-free. If all goes well, passengers will experience the flights in trials well ahead of the 2025 target for a fully operational service.
3. Tap-to-Fly Helicopter Takes Off
While the future of autonomous, urban air taxis has drawn new players and bold plans into the aviation space, another group has been quietly developing its own solution, putting itself at the head of the helicopter autonomy space. Sikorsky’s Matrix Technology, a suite of systems to boost helicopter safety by reducing pilot workload to the point where the crew can focus on what they need to do rather than how to do it, is formally entering the urban mobility race, using the Matrix system and electric propulsion technology. Its maker calls it SARA, for Sikorsky Autonomy Research Aircraft. And ultimately, it could do a lot more than make flying a helicopter safer and easier.
Flights are controlled through a tablet, the pilot can load in a preset mission or just point to a spot on the map and enter speed and altitude preferences – the computer then calculates the best route. Along the way, inertial guidance systems and GPS keep it on track, while external sensors, including lidar and cameras, watch for obstacles and potential landing sites should something go wrong. To take over, the pilot simply starts working the controls and the autonomous system gives way. When the pilot lets go again, the computer retakes control. It’s a two-way backup: The helicopter is always ready to take over from the pilot, just as the pilot is always able to take over from the computer.
Flights are controlled through a tablet, the pilot can load in a preset mission or just point to a spot on the map and enter speed and altitude preferences – the computer then calculates the best route. Along the way, inertial guidance systems and GPS keep it on track, while external sensors, including lidar and cameras, watch for obstacles and potential landing sites should something go wrong. To take over, the pilot simply starts working the controls and the autonomous system gives way. When the pilot lets go again, the computer retakes control. It’s a two-way backup: The helicopter is always ready to take over from the pilot, just as the pilot is always able to take over from the computer.
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In the next year or so, it will include Matrix features in the Black Hawks it builds for the US Army. Applications like oil rig transport and search-and-rescue missions will follow. And yes, this tech could someday enable those flying cars we keep hearing about.
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