WorldWide eVTOL

Technology Roadmap Sections and Deliverables

• 2EVL Eletric Vertical take off and Landing

This indicates that we are dealing with a “level 2” roadmap at the product level (see Fig. 8-5), where “level 1” is a market level roadmap 1LUM (Low emissions Urban air Mobility)and “level 3” or “level 4” would indicate the specific technologies like vectored thrust, autonomous flight, electric propulsion etc.

Roadmap Overview

Enter description of the technology here:

eVTOLS (electric Vehicle Take Off and Landing) are airborne vehicles that use electric vectored thrust to take off vertically and transition from vertical thrust to horizontal thrust, thus making it flexible and efficient for Urban air commute. The vectored thrust eVTOLs have a wing for an efficient cruise and use the same propulsion system for both hover and cruise. They are conceptually simple but difficult and risky to control. The tail-sitters rotate the entire aircraft. They are conceptually simple but difficult and risky to control. The Harrier configuration is called vectored thrust because it can orientate mechanically the direction of the thrust. The tilt-wings rotate the entire wing, the engines and the propellers as a single piece. Rotating the wing in hover avoids the impinging of the propeller slipstream on it, a problem that reduces the thrust in the hover of tiltrotors. The lift produced by the wing is augmented, at high angles of attack, by the blowing effect of the propellers. Autonomous eVTOLs are more versatile and can be efficiently used to transport passengers and cargo without any human intervention yet are often available as optionally pilotable.

Lilliumjet, architecture design principles

Design Structure Matrix (DSM) Allocation

The 2-EVL tree that we can extract from the DSM above shows us that the eVTOL (2EVL) is a solution to larger more fuel efficient methods of urban mobility (1LUM), and requires the following major subsystems: 3INT Interior, 3LHI Landing and Handling Infrastructure, 3EGM Energy Management, 3POP Propulsion, and 3NAV Navigation. These require the following level four component technologies: 4BAT Battery, 4CHG Charging Station, 4ELM Electric Motor, 4FAN Fan or Propeller, 4SEN Sensors, 4APT Auto-pilot and 4FCP Flight Computer.

Roadmap Model using OPM

We provide an Object-Process-Diagram (OPD) of the 2EVL roadmap in the figure below. This diagram captures the main object of the roadmap (eVTOL), its various instances including main competitors, its decomposition into subsystems (wing, flight-control, autonomous control, electric propulsion), its characterization by Figures of Merit (FOMs) as well as the main processes (hovering, wing tilt).

An Object-Process-Language (OPL) description of the roadmap scope is auto-generated and given below. It reflects the same content as the previous figure, but in a formal natural language.

Figures of Merit

The table below show a list of FOMs by which electric VTOL can be assessed. The first two and the last two are used to assess the aircraft itself. They are very similar to the FOMs that are used to compare traditional aircraft which are propelled by fossil fuels, the big difference being that 2EVL is essentially emissions free during flight operations. The other rows represent subordinated FOMs which impact the performance and cost of eVTOL but are provided as outputs (primary FOMs) from lower level roadmaps at level 3 or level 4, see the DSM above.

Positioning of Company vs. Competition

The table below contains publicly available high level specification data for the key e-VTOL aircraft designs currently in the R&D, prototyping or production technology developmental phases.

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  Volocopter 2x

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  E-Hang

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  Lilium Jet

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  Vahana

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  Cora

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  Aurora eVTOL

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  Rolls Royce eVTOL

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  NeoXcraft

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  Joby Generation 1

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  Nexus

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  Alakai Skai

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  Hyundai eVTOL