It was more of a small step than a giant leap, but the first public outing of a pilotless “drone taxi” in Vienna on Thursday nevertheless offered a glimpse into the possible future of urban travel.
Several big companies such as Boeing and Airbus are working on their own versions of the technology but it was the Chinese firm EHang that unveiled its aircraft to assembled journalists in the Austrian capital’s Generali Arena football stadium.
But anyone expecting to see it gliding over the Danube was to be disappointed — it is as yet not certified for Austrian airspace and stayed firmly within the confines of the stadium after a vertical hop of around 10 meters. Being inside the two-seater EHang 216 was “funny, soft and surprisingly noisy,” said AFP photographer Joe Klamar, one of the first journalists to climb aboard, adding that the cabin was “very cramped.”
Photo: AFP
“The rotors are scary but we got used to it,” he added.
The EHang 216 is equipped with eight sets of rotors which emit a noise level of 90 decibels, below a normal helicopter but still easily loud enough to be uncomfortable.
The firm says it hopes to get the noise level down to 75 decibels.
RESISTANT ‘MENTALITIES’
EHang says it eventually hopes to use to the drone to carry passengers at low altitude over distances of up to 35 kilometers but for now still needs to be cleared for use by aviation authorities.
“Our biggest challenge is not technology, it’s not regulation, it’s people’s mentality,” says EHang’s chief marketing officer Derrick Xiong, referring to possible reticence on the part of passengers towards the new vehicle.
The company says it has received “thousands” of pre-orders and that is working with Austrian aeronautics company FACC to start mass production as of next year.
Xiong says early interest has come from “oil and gas companies who want to transport engineers from one platform to the other” as well as tourism companies and firms transporting organs for transplant.
He said the EHang is expected to cost around 200,000 euros (US$224,531) but would not be available for private buyers.
“Technically speaking its not a dream, its a reality,” FACC CEO Robert Machtlinger told reporters, adding that the project had already carried out 7,000 flying hours, of which 2,000 have been manned.
The Austrian company, which has a turnover of around 800 million euros (US$900 million), supplies aerospace giants including Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Embraer.
It said it hopes to produce around 300 of the drone taxis by mid-2021.
HYBRID TECHNOLOGY
EHang has been carrying out most of its testing in China, as well a test flight in February 2017 in Dubai that was closed to the public.
Manufacturers working on other drone taxi prototypes — notably the German Volocopter — have been in touch with aviation authorities, including the EU’s European Aviation Safety Agency, to try to get authorization for their models.
“Some draft regulations are already existing” says Machtlinger, but adds that getting drone taxis legal status is complicated by their hybrid nature: “It’s not a helicopter, it’s not an aeroplane.”
Austrian Transport Minister Norbert Hofer, who was present at Thursday’s demonstration, said he hoped Austria could be among the first countries to have drone taxis flying regularly in its cities.
Dubai has also expressed interest in being an early adopter of the technology. EHang says its drone taxi can fly unaided for 30 minutes and reach speeds of up to 130 kilometers an hour and carry 260 kilos.
With its 17 kilowatt battery, its energy consumption per journey is “comparable to an electric car in an urban environment,” says Machtlinger.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would