Honeywell and Volocopter sign air taxi testing deal

German urban air taxi manufacturer Volocopter has signed a deal with Honeywell to jointly develop new navigation and automatic landing systems. They will be used on Volocopter’s vertical take-off and landing aircraft - perhaps as early as this year, the companies suggest. “A key goal of our collaboration is to fly a Honeywell inertial measurement-based attitude reference system solution in one of our Volocopters in 2019,” says Jan Hendrik Boelens, chief technology officer, Volocopter. Urban air mob
April 16, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

German urban air taxi manufacturer 8772 Volocopter has signed a deal with 3857 Honeywell to jointly develop new navigation and automatic landing systems.

They will be used on Volocopter’s vertical take-off and landing aircraft - perhaps as early as this year, the companies suggest.

“A key goal of our collaboration is to fly a Honeywell inertial measurement-based attitude reference system solution in one of our Volocopters in 2019,” says Jan Hendrik Boelens, chief technology officer, Volocopter.

Urban air mobility is seen by its supporters as having a key role to play in cities of the future. Volocopter plans to test its air taxis in %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 37214 0 link-external Singapore false /categories/utc/news/volocopter-to-test-electric-air-taxis-in-singapore-in-2019/ false false%> later this year and has signed an agreement with authorities at %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 38315 0 link-external Frankfurt false /sections/general/news/volocopter-and-fraport-to-develop-ground-infrastructure-for-air-taxis/ false false%> Airport to develop ground infrastructure.

“Congestion and traffic jams continue to be time killers for people in modern megacities,” Boelens says. “New time-saving, environmentally-friendly solutions are required, and air taxis will certainly be one of them. Honeywell’s wealth of experience and knowledge in the development of next-generation avionics technologies combined with our manufacturing expertise will make autonomous, on-demand air mobility a reality across the world.”

Honeywell has a range of autonomous sensing and flight technologies, such as inertial measurement units and attitude heading reference solutions.

Related Content

  • December 10, 2018
    Waymo trials commercial driverless taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona
    Waymo has launched a driverless taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, where riders will be charged for the journeys they take. In a blog post, CEO John Krafcik says the commercial self-driving service – called Waymo One - is available to early riders who have already been using Waymo’s technology. The company hopes to make the service available to more members of the public as it adds more vehicles and drives in more places, he writes. “Self-driving technology is new to many, so we’re proceeding carefully wi
    Read More
  • April 17, 2019
    Lyft recalls 3,000 e-bikes across US
    Ride-hailing company Lyft has recalled 3,000 electric bikes from cities in the US because of concerns over their braking systems. The brands affected are Citi Bike in New York, Capital Bikeshare in Washington, DC, and the Bay Area’s Ford GoBike. A similar statement on each company’s website says: “We recently received a small number of reports from riders who experienced stronger than expected braking force on the front wheel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively removing the pedal-assi
    Read More
  • November 6, 2018
    Uber seeks to resume AV trials nearly eight months after Arizona fatality
    Uber wants to resume testing its self-driving cars on public roads nearly eight months after one of its autonomous vehicles (AV) killed a pedestrian in Arizona. The ride-hailing company has released a voluntary safety report to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which includes safety enhancements to help prevent crashes and fatalities. Uber says its AVs would include two mission specialists – employees who have completed advanced training courses in self-driving vehicle operations. The
    Read More
  • November 15, 2019
    Waymo scraps AV operations in Austin
    Waymo is closing its operations in the US city of Austin following an increase in investment in the Detroit and Phoenix areas. A spokesperson told Austin Inno: “As a result, we’ve decided to relocate all Austin positions to Detroit and Phoenix. We are working closely with employees, offering them the opportunity to transfer, as well as with our staffing partners to ensure everyone receives transition pay and relocation assistance.” Last month Waymo sent an email to users, which appeared on Reddit, saying
    Read More

Highlighted Content