Can a land speeder be far behind?

Urban Aeronautics Launches Plan for EMS CityHawk VTOL
Charles Alcock / ainonline / August 20, 2020

Urban Aeronautics is partnering with Hatzolah Air to jointly offer an emergency medical service (EMS) version of its planned CityHawk VTOL aircraft. The company is aiming to complete certification of an initial hybrid-powered aircraft within three to five years, with a hydrogen-powered version set to enter service after 2028.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed on August 19, Hatzolah Air, which is a U.S.-based EMS operator, will help Israel-based Urban Aeronautics to develop, produce, and market the CityHawk in the emergency response market. According to Hatzolah Air president Eli Rowe, there is a potential market for 800 of the EMS version of the aircraft.

The main passenger-carrying design for the CityHawk will be adapted to accommodate a pilot, a patient plus a companion, along with two emergency medical personnel and life support equipment. The aircraft is to be powered by Urban Aeronautics’ Fancraft ducted fan technology developed for the company’s existing Cormorant unmanned aircraft, which is intended for missions such as carrying cargo. It is expected to have a range of around 125 miles, although a hybrid-powered version could extend this to 175 miles and this could be ready to fly by early 2023.

And/Or…

Japan’s ‘flying car’ gets off ground, with a person aboard

Phys.org / August 28, 2020

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Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who heads the SkyDrive effort, said he hopes “the flying car” can be made into a real-life product by 2023, but he acknowledged that making it safe was critical.

“Of the world’s more than 100 flying car projects, only a handful has succeeded with a person on board,” he told The Associated Press.

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“Many things have to happen,” said Sanjiv Singh, professor at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, who co-founded Near Earth Autonomy, near Pittsburgh, which is also working on an eVTOL aircraft.

“If they cost $10 million, no one is going to buy them. If they fly for 5 minutes, no one is going to buy them. If they fall out of the sky every so often, no one is going to buy them,” Singh said in a telephone interview.