The Future of Transportation-Personal Aerial Vehicle(PAV)?
The reality about transportation is that it’s future-oriented. If we’re planning for what we have, we’re behind the curve - Anthony Foxx
So, let’s get ahead of the curve with a futuristic innovation of Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV). The goal of these vehicles is to provide a break-through in personal air mobility; in other words, it can be defined as on-demand aviation services. This idea of PAV is practically feasible only because of cutting edge technologies such as vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), electric propulsion and automated Air Traffic Management, heads up display applied in sizable aircraft.
A few variants in a PAV are PIVITOLs (Personal Vertical Take-Off vehicles), PACs (Personal Aircraft), Ultralight Helicopter, Roadable aircraft (i.e. an aircraft that can travel on roadways to some degree).
Few distinctive features of PAV are its ability to provide “door-to-door” transportation solutions, automated functioning or ease of use in par with driving a typical car, passenger count which is less than five as being a personal vehicle, cruising speed around 250–350km/h, near all-weather commutes.
Recent Break-through
A handful of recent break-through in the evolution of PAV are :
- PAL-V Flying car (an aircraft with similar ability to commute on the road as a regular car) as of now it is licensed to operate on-road, the aviation certification is expected to arrive in 2022.
- City Airbus is an all-electric, four-seat, multi-copter vehicle demonstrator that focuses on advancing remotely piloted electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flight. The City Airbus full-scale demonstrator conducted its first take-off in May 2019.
- The Bell Nexus 4EX can operate as an electric-only vehicle or a hybrid-electric configured vehicle. With a hybrid platform, the Nexus 4EX promises an extended reach to travel farther or to more remote locations.
- The HEXA, a copter with eighteen independent electric motors and propellers, are the only moving parts needed for a perfectly stable, controlled flight, the unique feature of the large central float provides buoyancy for safe water landings.
- EHang AAV with an innovative The Battery Management System (BMS) can monitor the status information including battery voltage, current and temperature in real-time and control them within a safe range, a batch of 12 batteries are combined as a system to provide safe and reliable power.
- The VoloCity which is the first commercially licensed Volocopter, developed according to the high standards and requirements of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), with a specific goal of Urban Air Mobility.
- The AeroMobil is a copter with an exterior that is a real technological showcase, utilizing the latest in carbon composite construction to deliver aerodynamic performance combined with automotive strength.
- The Lilium Jet was designed with regional mobility in mind. It balances competing requirements for range, speed and payload while delivering a low noise footprint and the same safety standards as today’s commercial aircraft. The four wings contribute significantly to the overall efficiency, providing a lift to support the weight of the aircraft during horizontal flight, while the ducted design of the 36 electric motors provides a significant efficiency advantage over open rotors by blocking the formation of tip vortices.
Significant Initiatives to deal with the traffic congestion problem, although it is led by private organizations but International organizations such as the European Union has funded the projects like MyCopter under the 7th Framework. It is looking into the idea of personal air transportation via small air vehicles which are used in an urban context for the purpose of commuter traffic, in brief, a Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV).
Barriers
Despite rapid development and innovation in the evolution of PAV, there are a few concrete barriers that temporarily halt the ultimate aim of having PAV as a common mode of commute in par with the present state of a car; the above said barriers include the lack of entirely automated air-traffic management system without which the dream of PAV implemented in day to day life for a large segment of the population would be impossible, Near all Weather capabilities are a big topic for air traffic in general. Even large commercial aircrafts flying under IFR (instrument flight rules) are affected by snow events, freezing rain or other hazards. For smaller air and rotorcrafts like PAV with a lower level of instrument, equipment faces even greater restrictions in terms of weather.
Energy consumptions and its impact on the environment is a concern as propulsion and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) are known for its high energy needs, if at it has a combustion system then it is not environmentally friendly. Noise emission by on-road commutes have been decreasing gradually over the years, so now we can’t increase this rate by operating non-noise friendly PAVs.
Lack of fail-proof cuttings edge technology that is capable of entirely or highly automated flight -time without much human interference. Flight time and the maximum range distance being comparatively less with respect to what is practically needed in day to day commute, majorly due to a low specific energy of electric batteries on which most pavs are proposed. The parking problem, most upcoming proposals of PAV’s are in the dimensional range of a conventional car, if this is not the case, then parking of PAV is an urban environment would be a significant concern.
Last but one of the most crucial barrier is the perception of the general public, a recent survey revealed that the general opinion on PAV was that the level of automation needed to have PAVs safely operating in a city environment would have already solved the congestion problems on the ground if implemented in today’s cars, some even took their opinion to the next level by terming PAV’s as “Over-Engineering”.
The future of Personal aerial vehicle (PAV) in daily life is a thing of uncertainty, so as the proverb goes “The past can’t be changed. The Future is yet in your power” let’s do everything in our power to make the future as better as possible.
A huge credit for writing this article goes to this research paper by Jens And team (jens.schippl@kit.edu)
Here’s the link to it: http://www.mycopter.eu/fileadmin/mycopter_user_upload/files/Downloads/Publications/201310_ETC_KIT.pdf
