At the forefront is A³, a Silicon Valley subsidiary of Airbus, and their urban aircraft, the Vahana. The company chose to establish itself in Silicon Valley to take advantage of the speed of innovation and tolerance for risk-taking that exist in the area — factors that allow A³ to iterate much faster than its parent company.

During an interview at LA CoMotion last month themed “Highway in the Sky: Is Air Transport the Answer to Our Urban Congestion Woes?,” A³ CEO Rodin Lyasoff spoke in a subdued but positive tone about the high-minded activities going on at his company.

“We have a flying taxi,” he explained. “It’s a tilt wing, which means that it takes off and lands vertically, but in forward flight it’s essentially an airplane, which makes it a lot quieter and actually gives it a meaningful range with batteries.”

“Vahana”  is a VTOL aircraft, meaning it can hover, take off, and land vertically. It will take 90 seconds to hover up to the maximum cruising altitude of 1000 feet and transition to horizontal motion, then another 90 seconds to hover down to a particular destination. It is fully autonomous and features no manual controls. Eight electric rotors make Vahana aerodynamically superior to most helicopters.

“The project’s not even two years old, and our first full-sized, fully autonomous vehicles are already doing final testing before flight,” says Lyasoff. “And they will fly within the next couple of months.”

There are several other companies testing similar flying vehicles. For instance, Boeing recently acquired Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. and will provide UberAIR with 50 air taxis to test by 2020. Despite the competition, none offer both the VTOL flexibility and autonomy of Vahana. Plus, Vahana’s form language (and especially its canopy), make commuters want to use it over other services.

Of course, showing the public glossy renderings and videos is not as powerful as showing them a real-world demonstration. In São Paulo, A³ launched Voom, an air taxi mobile app that lets users hire a helicopter from one of six helipad locations throughout the city. According to its website, by using Voom, “you can travel from downtown to the airport for about the price of a private car.” Voom, which does not own or pilot any of the helicopters, simply connects people to certified operators in the area. It even offers a few ground transportation connections.

“We recognized that operations on the ground (and regulation) for some of these vehicles will be a challenge…this (Voom) gives us the footprint on the ground with current vehicles.”

It’s important to note that the biggest challenge to urban air mobility is not the technology, but the regulation. Lyasoff believes that figuring out how these aircrafts could operate while minimizing their energy consumption, cost, and noise footprint are questions that became easier to answer with the advent of the iPhone. He gave a brief description of how we got to flying taxis so quickly:

“Batteries finally got to good enough energy densities that you can actually do something useful with just batteries. You could go across an average metropolitan area. You could go 100 kilometers. Once that was possible, we could do distributed electric propulsion, which meant that you don’t have to push power to the propellers using mechanical gear boxes and shafts, and that all of a sudden makes them a lot lighter. And it allows you to have levels of redundancy that you couldn’t do before, which means that you can actually make them safer. And we could achieve that safety at a lower cost. But then they do require a degree of autonomy that traditional vehicles hadn’t required because they are so many actuators that a single pilot couldn’t directly control. A lot of that was enabled by the iPhone, because a lot of the sensors that we in the aviation industry developed, like accelerometers, GPS…(the iPhone) took them and commoditized them on a scale that was completed unprecedented in the aviation industry. I think that’s what actually miniaturized (batteries), lowered the cost, improved the performance, and enabled drones. And it really got people thinking about what’s possible and it became less of a black magic and more accessible.”

For now, Vahana needs to be tested so that regulators can approve of its use in urban environments. Luckily, it seems like A³ already has an idea of how to cross that looming threshold of bureaucracy.

“The main challenge is that regulators track innovation, but they track it with a latency that is prohibitive to deployment. You have to solve this very complex problem of implementing a policy, and in the case of airspace flight rules, you don’t really know how they are going to work until you deploy them.”

What A³ did was create Altiscope: a tool that allows regulators to simulate the experience of air taxis in real-time, both alongside and hovering below existing air traffic. It’s a way for the regulatory process to be enhanced and sped up while the actual vehicle is being tested.

“It will show you in real-time what your policy will look like when implemented. That’s our attempt to enable regulators to engage better with technology innovators and at the same time dry run their decisions before they deploy them to shorten that time and close that feedback loop.”

With Vahana about to undergo flight testing, and A³ helping regulators approve of urban air mobility, how long will it take for our traffic daydream to become a viable and safe option? Lyasoff is sure it won’t be long.

“I think in five or six years, it is feasible to have some of these vehicles fully certified and operating commercially. We can make them safe today, but we have really high standards for what it takes to make a safe airplane that we trust to sit inside and to fly overhead…I believe that Airbus is well positioned in this space, because there aren’t that many companies that know how to do that and know how to build a manufacturing process around that.”

The post How Autonomous Urban Air Mobility Became a Reality So Quickly first appeared on Dornob.

Due to the high safety standards of the aviation industry, even minor damage to certain parts is enough grounds for them to be scrapped. Rather than allow these pieces to be stripped and broken down in a scrap yard, Craviations takes them and worsens the damage to make them all more distinctive. Their aviation-inspired creations offer a certain charm to those who love planes and unique furniture.

For over two decades, Mike and Carolynn Rancourt have been running an aircraft structural repair company in Eastern Ontario, close to the Canadian capital of Ottawa. M.R. Airframe Ltd. fixes many types of aircraft, from helicopters to small airplanes and even large passenger models. They also make flight training devices and specialized equipment for machinists and technicians in the industry. Their years of experience and depth of knowledge regarding materials like titanium, stainless steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, fiberglass, aramid fibers, and honeycomb panels have given them countless ideas for unique furniture pieces.

Their first transformation was that of a helicopter-airframe-turned-bunk-bed. It can be placed over an existing queen bed, or the space under it can be utilized as a desk area. The user climbs into bed on a horizontal stabilizer placed at the back with slats that have been punched through to create small steps. The cockpit contains storage — and space for a monitor so kids can play their favorite video games.

When Craviations displays their products at design events and furniture expos (like they did in January 2019 at the Interior Design Show in Toronto), they usually attract visitors pulled in by curiosity. People are especially drawn to the Radome Lounger, which comes from the nose of a British Aerospace 146 and the aft section of a Canadian-made helicopter. It’s not the most comfortable chair you’ll ever sit it, but it is one of the most unique seats you’ll probably ever see. The mechanical aesthetic of other pieces, such as a turbine engine coffee table with cast metal and titanium sheeting, is charming for its simplicity. The helicopter gaming station, which can also be made into part of the bunk bed, is a quirky play space that would make a dream hideaway for any child.

Craviations have created many types of furniture and home accessories in the past, each with its own unique character. They make desks from landing gears, gear-top bar tables, sheet metal love seats, horizontal stabilizer coffee tables, main rotor blade candle holders, aft-section bird cage stands, gear transmission clocks, and polished aluminum benches. Regardless of the part or material, if it used to fly but has been permanently grounded, Craviations will find a way to keep it in use.

The post Craviations Turns Aircraft Salvage into Luxury Furniture first appeared on Dornob.

Yes, the foam — which is similar in composition to the fire retardant used in handheld fire extinguishers — has been significantly improved since it was invented in 1902. And the axe that we see the firefighters carrying, dubbed “Pulaski,” was updated with an elongated handle after an ergonomic study helped its designers better understand how to reduce fatigue. Still, significantly newer technologies like satellite imaging have yet to be implemented successfully.

There are a few reasons that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) seems so slow to introduce truly sophisticated technology. For starters, planning requires extensive collaboration between members of Congress, forest management, and eye witnesses on the ground. Congressional-level efforts to allocate more money to technology are already underway, as more money is consumed by the increasing severity of the state’s wildfires. Ralph Gonzales, the Fire and Aviation Portfolio Manager at the U.S. Forest Service’s Technology and Development program in San Dimas, California, also explains that the state doesn’t “want to introduce unintended consequences.”

So while many elements found in the following technologies are not brand new, what is new is the concept of bundling them together for use in firefighting, with a focus on early detection, mapping, and improved helicopter performance.

FUEGO: Early Detection of Wildfires from Space

FUEGO is a collaboration between UC Berkeley (led by Carl Pennypacker, an astrophysicist at the Lawrence National Berkeley Laboratory) and Fireball, a Reno-based company headed by CEO Tim Ball, who himself boasts almost a decade of firefighting experience and a doctorate from Stanford.

The project’s crowdfunding page reads: “Using modern digital technology, FUEGO [Fire Urgency Estimator in Geosynchronous Orbit] will utilize platforms at various altitudes to detect wildland fires very early, measure wildland fires with high precision and specificity, and then feed such results into modern fire simulation programs.” While the system is still being developed, the team envisions something along the lines of geosynchronous satellites and aerial drones integrated with existing piloted aircraft and fire towers. Sensors and infrared cameras would aid in spotting wildfires before they became too difficult to control.

Currently, wildfires are most commonly reported by witnesses on the ground, and less often by airplanes or weather satellites. Pennypacker says that the usual half-hour response time could be cut down to two minutes or less with FUEGO. Before that can happen, however, funding will have to be procured for the up-to $300 million satellite needed for the system. The team has even started entertaining the idea of a partnership with the US Defense Department, which already uses similar satellites.

Collector: A Geographic Information System Mapping App

Collector is an app developed by Esri, a company that specializes in information management. With a user-friendly interface that takes advantage of the built-in GPS hardware we all have on our smartphones and tablets, the app allows firefighters to download maps and work offline. As soon as they have cell service, their data is uploaded. They are then able to see a fire’s size and location, as well as any structures and roads in its vicinity.

Collector runs off the GIS (Geographic Information System): a multi-layered approach that efficiently stores and analyzes spatial data. The system allows firefighters to measure the acreage of affected areas, share photos, get directions, and track containment progress.

The hope here is that GIS tools like Collector could eventually replace radio communication for both aircraft and ground crews. Lisa Elenz, the Assistant Director of Capabilities, Development, and Integration for the Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management Division, explained: “We’re trying to expand our ability to access information off-aircraft, download it while they’re still in the air, store it, and make it searchable for analysis and documentation. We want to improve situational awareness so we have better information for line officers, decision makers, and crews on the ground.” Cal Fire has been using the app since 2014 to help map wildfire damage.

Black Hawk “Firehawk” Helicopters Carry More Firefighters and Water

In the summer of 2018, the City of San Diego’s Fire-Rescue Department received an S-70 Black Hawk helicopter from the Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky. LA County Fire Department has also started replacing their aging, Vietnam-era “Super Huey” helicopters with Black Hawks.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Air Operations Chief Chuck Macfarland states: “Never before has the City of San Diego operated as large and as powerful a helicopter as the Black Hawk, which can accurately place almost three times more water on a wildland fire in a single drop than our current fleet. By hitting wildland fires aggressively in their initial stage, we will be able to keep fires small.” The Black Hawk, now dubbed the Firehawk, can carry up to 11 firefighters and all of their gear. The aircraft boasts an 1,000-gallon (8,000-pound) belly tank, extended landing gear and rescue hoist, and a retractable snorkel. In comparison, the existing fleet of Super Huey helicopters can carry just eight firefighters and about 360 gallons of water or foam. Among other functions, the aircraft’s digital cockpit allows for precision hover, and its digital moving map is able to pinpoint precise location and destination. It’s easy to see why adoption of this particular technology is so attractive to fire departments.

“We’ve got a new dynamic in the landscape,” says Edward Struzik, author of Firestorm: How Wildfires Will Shape Our Future. “We’ve got heat drying up the forests, extending droughts, providing more fuel for ignition. The heat drives winds like the Santa Anas even harder than in the past.” The Forest Service currently has 80 people doing research and development, much of which focuses on the incorporation of new technologies. Here’s hoping these innovative measures provide at least a little relief to the increasing intensity of California’s wildfires.

The post New Technology in the Works to Fight Wildfires first appeared on Dornob.

In remote lake-and-hill country within Switzerland, building on site is often not an option – some spots are, at best, accessible only by motorcycle, small car or boat. This house was dropped off and installed in record speed.

In this case, a helicopter was required to bring building materials to the site – or the entire building, as it were, yet another mini-structure designed by Horden Cherry Lee Architects.

Constructed primarily of ultra-light-weight materials like aluminum and filling just a few square meters of space, the home required just a few quick attachments to fit in its permanent location overlooking a rural lake.

The nuts and bolts: “a 2.6m cube, by one meter in the south direction to create a full size 1.8m square double bed and space for dining table to seat up to eight people. The modified champagne-coloured micro home, is constructed using a light aluminium frame, total weight 1.8 tons.”

If it sounds cramped, you may be surprised at just hoe much stuff fits inside: “In addition to double bed, which lifts and lowers, the guest bed and dining and working space, the micro home has toilet shower and kitchen fitted with microwave, fridge and freezer etc. The little house also has air conditioning and low energy LED lighting and beige leather surfaces with custom designed space for Geneva sound system and Nespresso coffee machine”

The post Helicoptered Home: Flown Micro-Prefab Set Up in 5 Minutes first appeared on Dornob.