This video from Beta company shows one of the most significant events in the world of aviation over the past couple of years: the first ever flight of an electric aircraft (eVTOL) with the transition from vertical takeoff to horizontal flight and again to vertical landing.
Yes, we have already seen many achievements :
Flights of Chinese EHang copters with passengers, but without transitional modes, without flying on the wing, and therefore without the prospect of getting a range and a good cost of flight hours.
Flights of American Archer, Joby and British Vertical - with a wing, but without passengers: since the devices themselves do not meet the requirements of aviation regulations for reliability and safety, which are significantly higher than for drones.
Flights of "flying cars", without vertical takeoff, such as AirCar, which in essence do not differ from conventional aircraft, except for the appearance resembling a car.
But Beta has done what others have not yet been able to do: they have created an aircraft that is officially approved by the aviation authorities for test flights, according to all laws and with test pilots on board. This is an important step towards certification, that is, towards the transition from marketing demonstrations to commercial operation - which should become quieter, faster, more comfortable and, possibly, cheaper than helicopters.
Aviation is, first of all, security. The hype around electric aircraft for vertical takeoff and landing is subsiding - only those companies that build innovative solutions on the foundation of rigid aviation approaches to safety survive. All the rules are known, all the technologies are generally available. By the end of this decade, we will see hundreds or thousands of such aircraft in real life in the world.
It's not the future anymore, it's happening now.
"We’ve been testing over the last several years, all of the different data points to bring [ALIA] through what we call ‘transition,’ which is the point at which it’s flying like a helicopter to flying like an airplane (and back again). And, today, we’re going to thread them all together.” - Kyle Clark
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