AEA Pilot's Guide 2023-2024 - 62

eVTOL OPERATIONS
Continued from page 61
and certify the pilots who will operate these novel aircraft.
Our process for certifying the aircraft themselves remains
unchanged. "
Joby Aviation Inc. of Santa Cruz, California, is one of the
leading contenders to fly first with its eVTOL aircraft. It has
started to build its first production aircraft. This is a five-seat,
piloted vehicle which flies at 200 miles per hour to a range of
150 miles.
Joby intends to begin Part 135 passenger operations in
2024 in the United States with its eVTOL aircraft powered
by six electric motors driving six propellers that tilt parallel to
fuselage for takeoff and then horizontal to the fuselage for
cruise. There are four tilt rotors on the wing and two on the
tail. The company has completed more than 1,000 flight tests
in the past decade.
Joby received its Part 135 air carrier certificate from the
FAA ahead of schedule in the second quarter of 2022 and
has three quarters of its means of compliance accepted
based on a powered-lift framework. The company applied for
certification with the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority
in July 2022 to validate its FAA type certificate when it is
received. " By working hand in hand on certification, the U.K.
and the U.S. are setting the stage for these two countries
to be amongst the earlier adopters of this important new
technology, " said Joby Aviation CEO JoeBen Bevirt.
Joby is seeking FAA type certification for VFR operations
first to be followed by IFR operations. All of the key aspects
needed for IFR operations are built into the aircraft. " We
designed our aircraft to take off and land from existing
runways and helipads, " Joby said in an email. " Our pilots will
fly in traditional airspace. In the early days, this assures the
ability to enter into service immediately. And as we build new
infrastructure, the service will become even more convenient. "
The existing ATC system is well-suited to support Joby's
initial and medium-term operations while the FAA, NASA and
the aviation community continue to work to evolve the system
to address very high-capacity operations over the long term.
Joby is building its first production aircraft and has
$1.2 billion in cash and short-term investments to support
operations. The expansion of a contract with the Department
of Defense indicates that the Army, Navy, Air Force and
Marine Corps all have a strong interest in eVTOL operations.
" Our aircraft is designed to be able to be operated within
existing systems from day one, whereas the work being
done on ConOps studies is more focused on those who are
preparing for concepts of operation, which may not exist
today, " said Joby in an email. " We have been working with the
FAA and NASA for years to assure that our aircraft will be able
to operate in today's systems. We do engage in a wide variety
of forums that look at potential future operations. "
While Joby is designed to be flown by a pilot with fly-bywire
making it very safe, Joby said that, as autonomous
technology develops, it will make the best decision for the
path forward for its customers. " Clearly, there is a tremendous
potential for increased automation and autonomy over the
coming years, " the company noted.
Joby Aviation acquired Uber Elevate in 2020, so it will be
able to use Uber's app to offer air taxi rides in urban areas.
At the time, Uber agreed to invest $75 million in Joby and
expand its partnership with the aircraft company. There have
been no specifics on how air taxi rides will be priced.
The Joby eVTOL is a zero emissions aircraft. The
noise footprint of the aircraft also offers an advantage over
helicopters. Guy Norris, senior editor with Aviation Week &
Space Technology magazine, is quoted on the Joby website
saying that when he saw a Joby flight demonstration that " the
aircraft made only a partially perceptible sound that would
almost certainly be undetectable against the everyday noise
background of an urban environment. "
Wisk Aero is taking the opposite approach to Joby in
developing an eVTOL set to operate from the get-go as an
autonomous air vehicle. The company began its journey as
Kitty Hawk in 2010 when Wisk was established as a joint
venture with Boeing in 2019. It is headquartered in Silicon
Valley.
The Version 6 aircraft that Wisk is focused on now is no
longer a research and development model. It is designed to
go commercial, according to Erick Corona, director of product
management and UAS ops engineering at Wisk. Kitty Hawk
conducted 1,500 hours of flight testing on the five earlier
models of the air vehicle. When the company could not find a
suitable electric motor to power the aircraft, it decided to build
its own just like the Wright brothers did.
The four-seat, fixed-wing Wisk eVTOL has 12 small rotors
to lift the aircraft vertically. Six are mounted on the leading
edge of the wing and six on the trailing edge. It also has a
single propeller mounted on the rear of the fuselage and has
a range of 25 miles (initially) and a speed of 100 miles per
hour. It is autonomous (self-flying).
The FAA envisions UAM corridors in urban areas operated
by pilots under VFR initially and later being managed by
exchanging information to " providers of services for UAM "
known as PSUs for higher density operations.
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