eFlight Journal 02-2020

editorial
Unmanned is coming first -
Certification on its way
Why eVTOL and eSTOL unmanned cargo transport
applications are a rising market?
Despite Corona where many things stand still, the electrification
of aviation is continuing moving forward. There are new investments
flowing into the eVTOL area - like Lilium’s investment
in March of this year. There was the world’s first certification of
an aircraft in the CS–LSA Class, and the first certification of an
electric propulsion system for a certified aircraft - both done
by EASA and both received by the Slovenian Manufacturer
Pipistrel. Also there is a new trend in the eVTOL industry around
the world’s 1st Cargo.
With prevailing evidence, it appears that eVTOL and eSTOL
used for unmanned cargo delivery application is becoming a
rising market. Therefore, it is worthwhile to keep a close eye on
this and also on relevant manufacturers and operators. Though
there is no official specification to define cargo transport eVTOL
and eSTOL, it is safe to use passenger-grade payload weight
capacity as a guideline to differentiate heavy-haul eVTOL and
eSTOL from small cargo drones, i.e. 100 kg should be a reasonable
benchmark for cargo transport eVTOL and eSTOL. In
comparison: small cargo drones such as Google’s Wing delivery
UAV can carry only several kilograms and thus their application
and use cases are very different from heavy-haul eV-
TOLs and eSTOLs. More details on this, you can read in our
report on page 12.
In many cases the technology used for the aircraft is exactly the
same in manned applications so the Cargo will pave the way for
the Airtaxis - the future starts today.
Willi Tacke
Xin Gou
2 / 2020 e Flight Journal 3