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e News<br />
Toyota use wind turbine power to generate<br />
hydrogen from water<br />
Toyota began a new trial program with updated equipment to use wind turbine power<br />
to generate hydrogen from water in July. The trial program started in 2015 and has produced<br />
hydrogen to power 2 test forklift trucks. This new updated program will produce<br />
enough hydrogen to power 12 forklift trucks. Besides the energy program, Toyota has direct<br />
participation in electric aviation by providing about $ 35,0000 USD financial support<br />
to a flying car project that intends to be used to light the torch at the opening ceremony<br />
of the Tokyo Olympic Games in Summer 2018. Toyota also sent senior engineers to the<br />
UBER Elevate Summit conference in Dallas.<br />
The future of Transportation<br />
First US state governor to ride<br />
autonomously piloted aircraft<br />
Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia Governor, became the first US<br />
state governor to ride an autonomously piloted aircraft when<br />
he was the passenger in a Diamond DA-42 of the Aurora<br />
company in May. Terry McAuliffe has been heavily promoting<br />
the drone and autonomous <strong>flight</strong> technologies business in<br />
Virginia. Aurora’s DA-42 can be flown as an optional piloted<br />
airplane (OPA) with full autonomous <strong>flight</strong> control capability<br />
including autonomous takeoff and landings. In addition, Aurora’s<br />
robotic co-pilot rig has successfully landed a Boeing<br />
737 simulator. The robotic co-pilot rig can be adoptable and<br />
fitted in existing airplane models fairly quickly. Aurora is also<br />
one of the five current partner companies of UBER’s Elevate<br />
eVTOL on-demand aerial mobility project.<br />
At the “Future of Transportation World Conference” (July 5-6, in Cologne /<br />
Germany) in the session on “Getting Transportation Off the Ground” there<br />
were next to known players also some new e-<strong>flight</strong> concepts presented:<br />
Alma Flexcraft: The Portuguese company Almadesign works on a very-<br />
Short Take-Off and Landing (vSTOL) Flexcraft, with hybrid-electric power<br />
plant, 2 fan-in-wings and a pusher engine in the back between the two<br />
booms. This 8-passenger concept is part of the NewFACE, a cooperation<br />
of Almadesign, INEGI, SET and Embraer Compósitos, and the Technical<br />
University of Lisbon. Different propulsion schemes are being considered,<br />
as well as fuel cells for energy storage. Also there is the Israeli company Urban<br />
Aeronautics whose subsidiary Aurora Aircraft GmbH (founded in June<br />
<strong>2017</strong>) works on the Falcon XP, a 14-passenger version of the 4-passenger<br />
Urban Aeronautics/Metro Skyways CityHawk. “The aircraft will first run on<br />
jet fuel, later a hydrogen electric version is planed”.<br />
Geely acquired flying car<br />
company Terrafugia<br />
The Chinese car manufacturer Geely announced in July that<br />
they have acquired the flying car company Terrafugia. Chris<br />
Jaran, a former Vice President-China for Bell Helicopters and<br />
COO-Sikorsky Global Helicopters, was appointed as CEO of<br />
Terrafugia as of July <strong>2017</strong>. Geely is the owner of Volvo and<br />
Lotus and is active in electric mobility and autonomous technology<br />
development. Besides the Transition flying car that<br />
Terrafugia has been developing light sports aircraft qualified,<br />
in May 2013 Terrafugia announced the successor of the Transition<br />
called the TF-X which would be a plug-in hybrid tilt-rotor<br />
VTOL vehicle and would be a fully autonomous flying car.<br />
e Flight Journal<br />
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