Page 87 - World Airnews Magazine April 2020 Edition

FEATURE

take a couple-hundred-hour pilot, and a entirely transferrable
several-thousand-hour pilot, and rise the to all other aircraft
tide for both … and that’s necessary in types,” Groden said,
order to open up the pilot supply because if though older GA
you don’t have sufficient supply, you’re not aircraft first have to
operating any service.” be retrofitted with
Though FlightOS can enable autonomous fly-by-wire systems.
flight-as Skyryse demonstrated in “Some of these
December - the company is taking a future eVTOLs are
different approach than some in the urban effectively fly-by-
air mobility space who intend to jump wire, so that just
straight to un-piloted flight. makes it easier for
Wisk, a joint venture created by us; we can plug in
Kittyhawk and Boeing, will soon conduct and directly control
passenger trials using Cora, its two-seat all of the things that
eVTOL aircraft, with it flying autonomously affect flight dynamics.
using waypoints and a ground-based pilot And those folks are Luna, a Robinson R44 modified by Skyryse,
ready to take control if necessary. already talking to us makes a fully autonomous flight above
Most developers in the UAM space and are integrating our Los Angeles, California. (Skyryse)
believe flights will initially be piloted, fitting technology from that
with the Federal Aviation Administration’s point up through the
“crawl, walk, run” approach to unmanned stack.” ‘personal computing,’ or urban air mobility,
traffic management, urban air mobility and Skyryse is no longer pursuing operation it’s like taking the entire national airspace
other new aviation technologies. of its own urban air mobility service, which and putting it into every singly city. You
Groden said he is in “active conver- the company had described last year as an need a much higher level of reliability than
sations” with companies that already end-to-end transit system to be rolled out is present today if that is the ambition -
manufacture aircraft as well as others in Los Angeles using its own app and car higher than the ‘mainframe computers’
who intend to manufacture aircraft in the service to supplement R44s equipped with that are flying from one super controlled
future. Certification of FlightOS, which the company’s autonomous flight technol- infrastructure environment to another that
Groden said will be as a supplemental ogy. Instead, the California-based company communicates with it.”
type certificate for specific airframes, is is shifting its focus to the technology which “It’s not just about building a really
“months, not years away,” declining to Groden sees as critical to broadening redundant and reliable airframe, and it’s
say what airframes are currently being access to aviation. not just about building a high level of
evaluated. “From a reliability standpoint, we believe automation into the airframe; it’s about
The company’s December announcement that the system needs to be as reliable on a building a system that can support that
(and video) of a fully-autonomous helicop- trip basis as the elevator, if you’re going to type of transportation, and that’s what
ter showed a Robinson R44 modified by talk about urban air mobility, which is more Skyryse is building on the whole. Our
Skyryse. Groden said his company chose reliable than aircraft today,” Groden said. technology platform, of which FlightOS is a
that aircraft in part because it is statically “The aircraft that fly gate-to-gate are component, will enable that transportation
and dynamically unstable, and creates like the mainframe era, and this urban network of the future.”
strict limits on weight and power, making air mobility future is like saying we want
FlightOS difficult to integrate. personal computers,” Groden said. Article courtesy https://www.aviation-
“We’ve successfully done it, and we’ve “And when you look at the quantity of today.com
done it with a hardware stack that is aircraft that will be needed to support
NEWS FIRST RECIPIENTS OF CORONAVIRUS
DIGITAL
DONATION

by Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

continues with subsequent freighter flights countries will receive their own share. Time
across Africa,” said the airline said in a is running out. These materials must get to
Ethiopian Airlines has started the dis- tweet. the right place to protect the population. “
tribution of coronavirus medical supplies Even though most countries have closed According to the Ethiopian Minister
donated to Africa by Chinese business their airports, exemptions have been made of Health, Lia Tadesse this is a positive
mogul Jack Ma, CEO of e-commerce giant for cargo flights and planes on emergency indicator for many African countries facing
Ali Baba. missions. Ethiopian flies to most major this pandemic.
The carrier said it had started to capitals across Africa. “Testing capacity is one of the key
distribute to its neighbours - Eritrea, The supplies include face masks, test kits strategies to curb this epidemic. So this will
Djibouti, Egypt and Sudan. and protective clothing for health workers. really increase that capacity for Ethiopia
“The donation through the initiative of Speaking at the airport after receiving and all African countries. Also protective
Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia, the consignment, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines equipment is essential to prevent transmis-
will be distributed tonight. The mission Tewolde Gebremariam said, ““All 54 sion in hospitals.” Q

World Airnews | April Extra 2020
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