Flying cars, air taxis and eVTOLs, even the names of similar air transport can already be confusing.
What is considered a flying car?
There is no strict definition yet, but it is usually includedIn eVTOLs, electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles are electrically powered vertical takeoff vehicles.
Helicopters are not included in this category.The architecture can also be anything, as engineers are stillexperiment with the number of propellers and their location, as well as ergonomics and the number of passengers in the cabin.
Why talk separately about eVTOL and helicopters, are they really different?
Yes, there are differences between a helicopter and an eVTOL, for example, a helicopter is designed to hover in the air for a long time during flight.This is necessary to carry out surveillance, rescue and installation work in a fixed position.
The closest in terms of functionality tohelicopters - multicopters, they cannot cover long distances, but they waste power to fix their position in the air. It is also cheaper to certify a helicopter due to the absence of a complex transitional maneuver between vertical and horizontal flight.
Among the main advantages of eVTOL are low emissions and low noise levels.
Which flying cars are considered certified and are there safety standards in this area?
Today, more than 300 companies are engaged in the development and assembly of flying cars.But so far, all projects are mostly at the planning and testing stage.Only a handful of startups have working prototypes.
Another problem is the registration of new air taxis: safety certificates and air transportation rules are not available.All these issues have yet to be resolved, so we will tell you about special cases in which transportCertified.
For example, the drone created in China, EHang, has undergone a number of successful tests over cities in Europe and South Korea, and also received a certificate in 2020airworthiness SAC (Special Airworthiness Certificate) in the same place in Korea.To obtain it, the device must pass inspection, provide operational documentation and tell about the expected operating conditions.
The German company Volocopter also showed tests of a heavy cargo drone capable of transporting 200 kg of cargo over 40 km.The first commercial flights in Singapore should be launched by 2023.
Munich-based startup Lilium is also working on an air taxi.In 2020, the company showed a prototype of a five-seater aircraft.During level flight, the transport consumes only about 10% of themaximum power.
In 2020, the company's transport was given a CRI-A01 certificate from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).But this is not a document that gives permission to fly, but something like a list of requirements and technical problems that need to be paid attention to and corrected before going to the final certification.
CRI is an official document issued bybefore certification to highlight the main technical, administrative or interpretation problems that arise between a new aircraft and certification.
And what about Russia?
At the end of January, the Russian startup Hover begantest a flying taxi in Moscow, on the small arena in Luzhniki. The general director of the Hover hoverbike developer company Alexander Atamanov said that the start of operation of the first flying taxi in Russia is planned in 2025.
The device can carry two people and accelerate to 200 km/h.At this speed, the transport covers 100 km without recharging, which is about half an hour in the air.The carrying capacity of the passenger drone is 300 kg, it can rise 150 m above the ground.
Sergei Izvolsky, adviser to the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, said that transport now needs agency certification. It must be initiated by the manufacturer.
So far, there are no accounting and registration regulations for manned vehicles in Russia. Legislation is moving in that direction, but it is impossible to estimate how long it will take, he added.
There is still no uniform regulationcertification of electric air transport, flying cars and eVTOL. But IT corporations promise that air taxis will appear in the next five to ten years or even earlier.
This means that you need to have time to createclassification of this type of transport, a set of safety checks, as well as establish the frequency with which maintenance must be carried out and what should be included in it.
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