Page 31 - Flight International (January 2020)

ROTORCRAFT

❯❯ of MCAS is widely seen as having teer information to the FAA such as a detailed traditional helicopter, should be its noise goal
played a role. architecture of the Nexus 4EX’s propulsion for the Nexus 4EX.
The FAA has not formalised regulations for and flight-control systems, as well as its relat- “Bell will strive for the lowest holistic
certificating eVTOL aircraft or rules for intra- ed safety analysis. noise considering not only loudness (deci-
city autonomous flights. To help flush out In addition to public and regulatory confi- bels), but also tone, ambient noise and com-
operating procedures and flight rules, Bell dence in safety, Bell believes reducing the munity noise tolerance,” says Drennan,
was contracted last year by NASA to conduct amount of noise produced by its eVTOL air- noting that people in some cities may accept
flights using its Autonomous Pod Transport craft will play a crucial role in encouraging less sound than those in other regions.
70 cargo drone. The company is to conduct people to accept hundreds or thousands of “Noise is too critically linked to
demonstrations in the Dallas-Fort Worth, aircraft buzzing overhead. The company performance and cost to set an arbitrary
Texas airspace in the summer of 2020. thinks that a decibel level in the high 70s or loudness level that doesn’t take all of these
The company also says it is ready to volun- low 80s, about 15 decibels quieter than a factors into account.” ■

TECHNOLOGY
Helicopter maker charges artificial intelligence with managing eVTOL operations
In a partial break with its partner Uber – as well
as its own historical business model – Bell
plans to vertically integrate aircraft production,
flight operations and nearly everything in be-
tween, in a bid to grab a large piece of the
nascent electric vertical take-off and landing
(eVTOL) air taxi industry. The helicopter and
tiltrotor manufacturer believes that the volume
of eVTOL air taxi flights to come in the future
will require closely co-ordinated, vertically
integrated companies to ensure passenger
safety and corporate profitability.
The company is pushing headlong into
software development of a variety of applica-
tions to synchronise a tall order of business
operations. At January’s Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas, it announced the first step
in that effort; a software program named AerOS
is to be a platform for a larger suite of eVTOL
support software, including master scheduling Shutterstock
and real-time aircraft monitoring. The company
plans to use the software itself, but also license In the sky, traffic management will have to be significantly better – despite heavy volume
it to other air taxi operators and eVTOL aircraft
manufacturers. need to constantly match demand for flights instructions: this needs to be open and
Bell expects thousands of eVTOL aircraft to with sufficiently charged electric aircraft. That is available and as flexible and agile as possible.”
be operating within some major cities. The a balancing act that will likely be best done The company acknowledges that it does not
company says choreographing such using algorithms and artificial intelligence, the have much of a track record in the realm of
operations, with each aircraft flying around firm says. software development. In fact, Bell formed part
2,000h per year, cannot be done with human Bell aims to receive Federal Aviation of its software development team by pulling
personnel. EVTOL aircraft may be asked to Administration certification for its eVTOL staff from its corporate IT department. As a
land at special urban airports, called aircraft, to be based on the recently unveiled starting point for building experience and ex-
vertiports, deplane and then reload four-rotor Nexus 4EX demonstrator, in the mid- pertise, the firm notes its Mission Link software,
passengers in 15min or less, explains Bell. 2020s. It believes the air taxi industry will take which monitors health and usage of several of
“That is incredible pace,” says Matt Holvey, off shortly thereafter. its commercial helicopter models.
innovation manager of intelligent systems at In advance of the eVTOL industry taking Bell’s move into the world of flight operations
Bell. “You run the risk of human fatigue and shape, Bell is planning to roll out a suite of and support software encroaches on the realm of
human error. A fleet of aircraft is going to software that will handle fleet scheduling, Uber, the eVTOL air taxi industry’s leading cheer-
require a fleet of operators, hands on deck, all vehicle health monitoring, cargo routing, leader, which had hoped to translate its experi-
alert, all the time. Or, you can validate software airspace integration, trip booking, route optimi- ence helping passengers to hail rides on the
systems, just like you validate aircraft software sation and MRO work, among other applica- ground into a similar business model in the air.
systems – have autonomous systems with tions. The rotorcraft manufacturer plans for its Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall that it
human oversight, managing and overseeing software to be modular and as open as possible would likely compete with traditional airfram-
and co-ordinating this end-to-end solution.” to collaboration with other app makers and ers, Uber announced on the same day Bell
In addition, with battery energy density vehicle manufacturers. “The theory behind this revealed its AerOS software to the public – 6
remaining the chief limiting factor of eVTOL is it is open and usable by any aircraft January – that it would work with carmaker
aircraft, the company believes operators will platform,” says Holvey. “I was under specific Hyundai to manufacture an eVTOL aircraft. ■

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