Leeham News and Analysis
There's more to real news than a news release.
Leeham News and Analysis
- China bans Boeing, US parts imports in tariff war April 15, 2025
- Boeing welcomes COMAC competition as Asia-Pacific demand soars April 15, 2025
- How good is the C929? April 14, 2025
- Bjorn’s Corner: Air Transport’s route to 2050. Part 17. April 11, 2025
- Uncertainty plagues airline, aerospace, lessor industries over tariffs April 10, 2025
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 34. eVTOL battery cells
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 26, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a summary of the article Part 34P, eVTOL battery cells. It discusses the main component of the battery system, the battery cell.
The Lithium-Ion cells in an eVTOL battery system are the key components of the energy supply system. The cells are of a high power and energy type and must be used and managed correctly to last long and be safe.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 33. eVTOL batteries.
August 19, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This is a summary of article Part 33P, eVTOL batteries. This article discusses the trickiest system on an eVTOL, the battery system.
The battery system supplies the energy to the VTOL, and given today’s and tomorrow’s battery technology; it’s a tight resource that needs a lot of pampering.
Figure 1. We use graphs in the Pipistrel spare parts catalog to show the battery system of the Pipistrel Velis Electro. Source: Pipistrel and Leeham Co.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 31. Mixed architectures.
By Bjorn Fehrm
August 5, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This week, we look at two eVTOLs that don’t fit the terminology we use; Multicopters, Vectored thrust, or Lift and Cruise. The Vertical VX4 and Archer Maker are Lift and Cruise designs, but they use vectored thrusters for the cruise thrust, Figure 1.
Figure 1. The Vertical VX4. Source: Vertical Aerospace.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 30. Lilium Jet VTOL.
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 28, 2022, ©. Leeham News: This week, we analyze the Lilium Jet VTOL.
It’s a vectored thrust design, but it’s different enough in its characteristics from the vectored thrust VTOLs we looked at in Part 28 (Joby S4 ..) to motivate a separate article.
Figure 1. The final Lilium Jet configuration transports six passengers plus a pilot. Note the changed number of wing jets (from 24 to 20). Source: Lilium.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 29. Lift + Cruise VTOLs.
By Bjorn Fehrm
July 22, 2022, ©. Leeham News: We analyzed vectored thrust VTOLs last week, like Joby Aviation’s Joby S4. Now we look at VTOLs that separate vertical and forward flight thrust generation into two different systems. Typical exponents are Wisk Aero Cora, Beta Technologies Alia-250, and Embraer’s EVE.
Figure 1. Wisk Aero Cora. Source: Wisk Aero.
Bjorn’s Corner: Sustainable Air Transport. Part 27. Multicopters.
July 8, 2022, ©. Leeham News: We will start the analysis of the market’s most prominent VTOL variants by looking at the simplest version, multicopters.
When we analyze the multicopters, we can go through some fundamentals of how VTOL operates and the technology used.
Figure 1. The VoloCity multicopter of the Volocopter company. Source: Volocopter.
Boeing invests $450m in Wisk Aero air taxi venture
By Bjorn Fehrm
January 25, 2022, ©. Leeham News: Boeing and Wisk Aero yesterday had a media briefing on why Boeing is extending its investment in Wisk Aero with a further $450m.
The main technology is not the eVTOL aircraft. Wisk is just one of many upstarts that relies on batteries and multiple electrical propulsors to create a VTOL air taxi. It’s the pilotless operation that’s the key technology in the project. As perhaps the only VTOL company, Wisk goes directly to pilotless flight.
Brian Yutko, VP of Sustainability and Future Mobility at Boeing, explained: “The pilotless flight technology is of great interest to Boeing. It’s challenging technology, but it has a wide field of applications once mastered. We are not targeting our airliners but other civil and military applications. It’s an important driver for us in the continued support for our Wisk joint venture.”
Figure 1. The fifth-generation prototype Cora, with which flight tests are done in New Zeeland. Source: Wisk Aero.