E-Flight. An exciting future. “By entering the field of highly innovative aircraft propulsion technology, we‘re opening a new chapter in E-Mobility. Collaboration with Airbus Group will create new perspectives for our company and open us up even more to disruptive innovation.“ Siemens President and CEO Joe Kaeser siemens.com/innovation
e ditorial Step by Step AAt the moment you get the impression that light aviation, even aviation in general, is in the fast lane and is on the way with Seven-league boots. This year opened with the Elevate announcement from Uber, the taxi service, and in autumn two air taxis were seen at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt. The financial markets as well are investing: Mercedes has a 10 per cent stake in Volocopter; Lilium has just collected 90 million euros with their vertical-launch project Lilium-Jet. At the largest car show in the world, the Slovakian Aeromobil- Flugauto (flight Car) could be seen alongside the Volocopter. This is quite an interesting approach, but by many, usually self-proclaimed “experts” tell everyone without being asked that these devices are completely out when the VTOL aircraft will comes there. We, Flying Pages, have been supporting the electrification of light aviation for years; we have launched the e-flight Expo and the e-flight show at the AERO and will now be hosting the e-flight Forum in Beijing this November. But these rose-colored future-predictions, you may have heard last month, seems to be a little bit muted. “Our VTOL vehicle is to be approved as General Aviation / LSA and approval will be completed in the next two years so that sales can begin.” If a journalist asks one of the CEO’s this is one of the stereotypical timetables they like to offer and like to have quoted by the journalist. Very seldom will a journalist ask further questions or dig deeper. However the fact is, although technical problems, which are undoubtedly still there, can be solved faster with the flood of money which is now engaging into aviation and even if the super batteries will come in the following years, one thing, which nearly all forecasts absolutely underestimate is the certification. Remember how long it took to change to the new radios, how elaborate and laborious it is to get a certification for a new glass cockpit and how expensive this process is? If you think of this, then at least a decade - if not even more - will pass by before autonomous flying, vertical-flight flight-taxis will be allowed for passenger transport. Admittedly the regulatory authorities have moved and set a new milestone with the new Part 23. However, before a VTOL not only can fly as a prototype but with certification a lot of water will flow down the Rhine river. After all, the failure-proof and redundancy systems of this totally new technology have to be proved and extensively tested (alone and in combinations). At the moment most e- planes have a very short time in the air because the required flight time reserve limits the actual available real flight time to a few minutes. Remember how long it took to get the certification for the first ballistic recovery system, to save a plane in whole for a GA plane as well as it being very expensive. This was still the fact although this system was already used in ultralight aircraft and had already saved dozens of lives. Bridging Technology Against this background, it seems to be a good idea to look first at old-fashioned fixed wing planes equipped with electric motors and hybrid devices. Then test these planes and develop the necessary safety standards, approvals and operating criteria together with the authorities. So when the VTOL devices really will come, EASA and Co. already know how to deal with larger battery packs in the air and which (approval) requirements are to be placed on the control software. The next step will then be airplanes with many electric motors, which may also start vertically in the future. Of course, where they can take off and land, that is a completely different question. If you accept these “normal” e-planes as bridging technology, then the flight cars with wings, like the aforementioned Aeromobile or the Carplane, are a step on the way to certificate an approve of novel electric planes. But one thing is clear: even if Air taxis are certified and massproduced in future, most of the novel airplanes (and their technology) have been developed in the microlight sector. Only in a deregulated environment a rapid advancing technology will unfold. In order to make this happen for the electric flight in the near future, the MTOW for double-seated ultralights must be clearly raised, best to 600 Kg. The only alternative is that the EASA will significantly deeggle/deregulate its classes, starting with the LSA, and adapting it to the UL world, but this will probably remain forever only a beautiful dream. Willi Tacke 2 / 2017 e Flight Journal 3