Category: Alternative Transportation

The vehicles are self-charging and powered by solar energy 

Spotted: Navigating tightly packed city streets just got a lot easier with the introduction of the Squad car. Created by The Netherlands-based Squad Mobility sustainable transport company, the Squad car is several steps up in comfort from scooters. Squad cars have two or four seats, with storage space in the back of the vehicle. Completely free to use, they are self-charging, so door-to-door use is a reality. There is no need to park it anywhere in particular, or find a renewable energy charging station. 

Doors and windows are removable during the summer months, and with seatbelts and a full roll bar cage structure, the cars are designed for safety. They travel at a maximum speed of 45 kilometres an hour and include dashboard smartphone integration for handsfree navigation and communication.  

Continue reading… “FLEETS OF MICROCARS COULD BECOME ANOTHER PUBLIC TRANSPORT OPTION”

· By Cristina Mircea

David Mayman is a visionary, an inventor, and passionate aviator. He is also the founder and CEO of JetPack Aviation, a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft manufacturer based in Los Angeles. After the company succeeded in building the world’s first portable JetPack, it started advertising another exciting product: the world’s first flying motorcycle, called Speeder.

While JetPack Aviation only teased us with animations of the aircraft so far, we now have footage of an actual prototype nailing its first platform tests. As seen in the video posted by New Atlas on YouTube, the P1 VTOL that will eventually be powered by four individual turbojet engines, does very well in its tests, thanks to JetPack Aviation’s flight control software, which was created by the company’s team.

While the P1 prototype looks nothing like the aircraft in their animation, and it is also tethered in these tests, this is nevertheless a major step forward for JetPack Aviation. The VTOL proved to be impressively stable and resilient, including with dummy loads on it and performing in 30-knot winds. The safety tether doesn’t support the P1, as seen in the footage. Tests confirmed that the Speeder can takeoff, do turns,climb, and hold itself in a stable hover using LiDAR.

Continue reading… “World’s First Flying Motorcycle Is Getting one Test Closer To Becoming a Reality”

An artist’s impression of the HyperPort.

By  Chris Young

The HyperPort will allow port operators to transport cargo containers hundreds of kilometers away in mere minutes.

The much-hyped hyperloop is one step closer to becoming a reality with the announcement of HyperloopTT’s HyperPort concept.

HyperloopTT (the letters stand for Transportation Technologies) announced this week that its HyperPort, developed in partnership with terminal operator Hamburg Hafen und Logistik AG, is going into certification design review.

The HyperPort is a “sustainable high-speed cargo and freight solution capable of increasing capacity and efficiency while decreasing pollution and congestion at ports worldwide,” a press statement from the company reveals. 

The long-term goal of both companies is to disrupt the logistics industry global logistics industry, which is estimated to grow to $12 trillion by 2023, according to a report by Freight Waves.

Continue reading… “A New Zero-Emission Hyperloop Port Offers Ground Transport at ‘Airplane Speeds’”

The company has pre-orders from its backers for up to 1,000 planes.

By Lou Whiteman

Air taxi start-up Vertical Aerospace Group said late Thursday it intends to go public with nearly $400 million in new funding from a number of big-name partners who have also agreed to order up to 1,000 aircraft.

Vertical has a deal to merge with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Broadstone Acquisition (NYSE:BSN). The deal values the combination at about $2.2 billion and includes investments from American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL), air-leasing company Avolon, and Virgin Atlantic airline, as well as an investment arm of Microsoft.

Vertical Aerospace’s main product is the VA-X4, a piloted, zero-emissions electric-vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. The airplane/helicopter hybrid is expected to have a range of 100 miles and capacity to carry four passengers along with a pilot at speeds up to 200 miles per hour.

These so-called air taxi developers are becoming a hot commodity on Wall Street. China’s Ehang Holdings is already public. Another start-up, Joby Aviation, has a deal pending to merge with SPAC Reinvent Technology Partners. And Embraer is reportedly in talks to merge its eVTOL unit with Zanite Acquisition, also a SPAC.

Vertical has a competitive advantage in the form of its investors. American, Virgin Atlantic, and Avolon together have committed to buy up to 1,000 aircraft. American, which said it has a “pre-order” of 250 aircraft with an option to order an additional 100, in a statement said eVTOLs could be a key part of its push to go green.

Continue reading… “Air Taxi Start-Up Vertical Aerospace to Go Public With Funding From American Airlines, Others”

Space plane aims to take you anywhere on the globe in one hour

A company called Venus Aerospace Corp. is pursuing a hypersonic space plane that has the potential to take people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in about an hour. The trip in their proposed space plane would take off from the ground like a conventional aircraft and fly up to a high cruising altitude. Once at that cruising altitude, a rocket booster would ignite and push the aircraft to the edge of space at more than 9000 mph.

That’s approximately 12 times the speed of sound. The aircraft would travel at that incredible velocity for approximately 15 minutes before gliding against the atmosphere to slow down and eventually landing at a conventional airport just as it took off. Venus was founded by a pair of former Virgin Orbit LLC employees, and the company currently has 15 employees of its own.

Continue reading… “Space plane aims to take you anywhere on the globe in one hour”

Autonomous air vehicle company ehang unveils ‘baobab’, a large tree-like tower and landing platform for its EH216 passenger drones.

Designed by giancarlo zema design group (GZDG) with sustainability at the core, photovoltaic panels on the vertiports will generate energy and independent plug-and-play charging points will recharge the drones wirelessly. currently in the development stage, ehang and GZDG hope to enter the emerging global eco-tourism sector with hubs being planned for a lakeside site in china’s zhaoqing city as well as in the maldives, the united arab emirates, and italy.

Continue reading… “Ehang unveils tree-like vertiports for its autonomous passenger drones”

By Trevor Mogg

Imagine living in a coastal community and heading to the harbor for an ultra-low-altitude flight aboard an electric aircraft to a neighboring town just along the water.

Boston-based startup Regent is already working toward such a reality with its 10-passenger “seaglider” that it says could be carrying paying passengers as early as 2025.

Co-founders CEO Billy Thalheimer and CTO Michael Klinker, both of whom previously worked for a Boeing-linked company, told CNBC this week that the zero-emissions plane would begin a journey by leaving a harbor on a hydrofoil before lifting off the water to reach speeds of up to 180 mph — way faster than a lumbering ferry plying the same waters.

Continue reading… “This flying electric ferry could revolutionize coastal travel”

It’s the latest eVTOL company to go public via a reverse merger

By Andrew J. Hawkins

Germany’s Lilium will be the latest electric aviation startup to go public via a reverse merger with a special acquisition company, or SPAC. Lilium will merge with Qell Acquisition, a SPAC founded by former General Motors executive Barry Engle. The newly formed company will list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “LILM.”

As part of the announcement, Lilium unveiled a new, seven-seat electric aircraft that it says will launch as part of an inter-city flying taxi service in 2025. Previously, the company’s prototype was said to have only five seats — so we can assume that Lilium’s ambitions to ferry more passengers are growing along with its financial expectations. 

It’s the latest deal involving an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) startup after the SPAC deals of Archer and Joby Aviation. A SPAC is a blank-check corporation, formed as an alternative to an IPO, because it raises funds for an operation that doesn’t have revenue of its own. There have been a rash of SPAC deals involving companies in the transportation space, including electric cars, autonomous vehicles, and micromobility. 

Continue reading… “Flying taxi startup Lilium goes public via SPAC, unveils its new electric aircraft”

David Mantey 

A California developer of flying taxis will become a publicly-traded company — and celebrated by unveiling its aircraft in action for the first time.
Joby Aviation founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt made the video announcement standing in front of the company’s aircraft — which proceeded to quietly start up its six rotors, lift a few feet off the ground, turn around and begin a slow ascent.

The company, one of the numerous would-be flying car startups around the world, operated quietly for nearly a decade before landing hundreds of millions in venture capital investment — including from Toyota, Intel, and JetBlue — in recent years. Late last year, the company acquired Uber’s flying car division, and soon, it will merge with a special purpose acquisition company in order to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Continue reading… “Flying Car Developer Takes Off, Becomes Publicly Traded”