Page 6 - GCN, August/September 2018

[BrieFing]
Uber taps public-sector partners for UberAIR
BY SUSAN MILLER
THE ARMY RESEARCH Lab and the University of Texas at Austin have been chosen as partners for Uber Elevate, the ridesharing company’s venture into a flying taxi service dubbed UberAIR.
ARL and the university will work on the rotor technology for the electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, which is expected to cruise
at an altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 feet, reach speeds of 150 to 200 mph and fly up to 60 miles on a single charge. The aircraft will use stacked co- rotating propellers, in which two rotor systems sit on top of each other and rotate in the same direction. Prelimi- nary testing has shown the method to be quieter, more versatile and more efficient than other approaches.
In May, Uber signed a joint work statement with ARL to advance tech- nologies in support of Future Vertical Lift, an Army-led multiservice initia- tive focused on advanced rotorcraft designs for future aircraft and drones that can carry greater payloads, oper- ate silently, and take off and land without a runway.
“This agreement with Uber displays the Army utilizing innovative ap- proaches to collaborate with an indus- try partner that is truly on the cutting edge,” said Jaret Riddick, director of ARL’s Vehicle Technology Directorate. “It will allow the Army to rapidly ad- vance mutually beneficial technology to inform objectives for silent and effi- cient VTOL...for the next-generation
fleet of Army unmanned air vehicles.” Uber is also working with NASA on
the development of unmanned traf- fic management concepts and aerial safety systems. Using its computer modeling and simulation expertise, NASA will assess the impact of small aircraft — from delivery drones
to VTOL passenger aircraft — in crowded environments.
NASA will use Uber-supplied data to simulate a small passenger-carrying aircraft flying through airspace near Dallas/Fort Worth International Air- port during peak times. Those simula- tions will help developers identify safety issues involved in integrating new types of aircraft into the air traf-
fic control system, NASA officials said. Jaiwon Shin, associate administra-
tor of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, told a House panel in July that “the results of
this research will be made available to the broader [urban air mobility] community. These partnerships may be then expanded beyond modeling and simulation to include system- level flight demonstrations, where we can identify and address safety and integration challenges in increasingly crowded airspace.”
UberAIR flights will be tested in Dallas, Los Angeles and Dubai in 2020, with commercial operations beginning in 2023. •
6 GCN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018 • GCN.COM
PHOTO: UBER