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NASA may soon offer air taxi services!

Sat 04 Sep 2021    
EcoBalance
| 2 min read

It’s quite an exciting time for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Following the successful retrieval of a sample of rock from Mars, they’ve now begun testing eVTOL aircraft as part of its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign. It will continue till September 10, 2021, at Joby’s Electric Flight Base in California.

They have begun testing an all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with Joby Aviation that is aimed to serve as an air taxi for moving people and items. 

The eVTOL aircraft has been designed to serve as an extra mode of faster transportation in the surrounding areas. With this first phase of tests, NASA’s primary focus is on collecting vehicle performance as well as acoustic data from Joby’s eVTOL aircraft that is slated as a commercial passenger service in the future.

“The National Campaign Developmental Testing is an important strategic step in NASA’s goals to accelerate the AAM industry timeline. These testing scenarios will help inform gaps in current standards to benefit the industry’s progress of integrating AAM vehicles into the airspace,” Davis Hackenberg, NASA AAM mission integration Manager said.

To collect this data, the team will install the mobile acoustics facility and construct an array of over 50 microphones to record the acoustic profile of Joby’s aircraft in different phases of flight.

The CEO and founder of JoeBen Bevirt Joby Aviation said, “NASA’s AAM National Campaign is critical to driving scientific understanding and public acceptance of eVTOL aircraft. We’re incredibly proud to have worked closely with NASA on an electric flight over the past ten years and to be the first eVTOL company to fly as part of the campaign.”

When these air crafts are fully integrated into the airspace, AAM aims to provide an economical transportation system for passengers as well as goods. They are also hoping to include services like package delivery drones, air taxis, and medical transport vehicles.

Agencies


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