TECH NEWS – In partnership with Joby Aviation, NASA develops a new electric-powered air taxi, and flight tests are underway!

NASA on Monday began flight tests of Joby Aviation‘s all-electric powered vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as part of the agency’s national Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) campaign. Testing runs through September 10 at Joby Electric Flight Base, located near Big Sur, California. This is the first time NASA has tested an eVTOL aircraft as part of the campaign. In the future, eVTOL aircraft could serve as air taxis for people in cities and surrounding areas across the country, providing another mode of transportation for moving people and goods.

NASA aims to collect data on vehicle performance and acoustics for modelling and simulation of future airspace concepts. This test will help identify gaps in current Federal Aviation Administration regulations and policies so that AAM aircraft can be more easily integrated into the national airspace system. The multi-event campaign to promote mobility in US airspace will take place in multiple locations over several years.

“The developmental testing of the national campaign is an important strategic step in achieving NASA’s goals to accelerate the AAM industry’s roadmap,” said Davis Hackenberg, NASA’s AAM mission integration manager. “These testing scenarios will help identify gaps in current standards to benefit the industry as we move forward with integrating AAM vehicles into the airspace.”

During this round of testing, NASA will collect data from Joby’s eVTOL aircraft, which will serve as a commercial passenger service in the future. The analysis of this data will prepare the AAM National Campaign to conduct the first campaign test, known as NC-1, planned for 2022, with more complex flight scenarios and other industrial vehicles.

As the Joby aircraft flies the planned test scenarios, the NASA team will collect information on how the vehicle moves, sounds like, and how the vehicle communicates with controllers. Future partners will fly similar scenarios to assess the readiness of their vehicles. The team will install a mobile acoustic facility and build an array of more than 50 microphones to measure the acoustic profile of the Joby aircraft during different phases of flight.

“NASA’s AAM National Campaign is key to advancing the scientific understanding and public acceptance of eVTOL aircraft,” said Joby Aviation founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt. “We are incredibly proud to have worked closely with NASA on electric aviation for the past ten years and to be the first eVTOL company to fly as part of the campaign”.

Once fully integrated into the national airspace, AAM will provide an efficient and affordable system for passenger and cargo transport and other public interest applications. This system could include aircraft such as baggage delivery drones, air taxis and medical transport vehicles. The AAM national campaign is led by NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility project, which is expected to act as a community catalyst for developing and validating AAM system-level concepts and solutions. The AAM project is part of the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

Source: NASA / JOBY Aviation