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The next chapter for bell’s h-1 helicopters begins - march 28, honeywell sees consolidation and longer path to market for evtol makers - march 22, ain, reliable robotics gains fresh funding for autonomous flight tech - march 26, ain.

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Army Is ‘Biggest Participant’ By Quantity In First Round Of Replicator, Bush Says - March 20

Carmaker model may yield cheaper drone wingmen: air force research lab - defense news, march 6, jaunt air mobility ceo talks airo group and latest journey evtol program developments.

By Woodrow Bellamy III | October 21, 2021 Send Feedback | @WBellamyIIIAC

Jaunt Air Mobility is developing its five-seat fully electric eVTOL pictured here as a computer-generated prototype, and has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIRO Group. (Jaunt Air Mobility)

Jaunt Air Mobility’s merge with the AIRO Group (US) will provide the financial leverage and business leadership necessary to continue the development of their Journey electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and eventually an autonomous cargo drone. During the 2021 NBAA BACE in Las Vegas, Martin Peryea, CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility, explained how joining the AIRO Group will help achieve their eVTOL aspirations with Journey and provided some insight into how they’re approaching the development of Journey’s fly-by-wire flight control system.

Dallas, Texas-based Jaunt is aiming to develop Journey, a five-seat all-electric eVTOL to be ready for entry into service by 2026. Separately, the company is also developing a larger longer range hybrid-electric diesel-powered aircraft with VerdeGo Aero.

AIRO Group’s addition of Jaunt Air Mobility as a wholly-owned subsidiary now makes it the parent company of six companies, including Drone, Agile Defense, Aspen Avionics, Coastal Defense, Sky-Watch and VRCO.

“Financing and funding the development of our aircraft is an area where Jaunt needed some help, and we have never taken a company public, so joining AIRO allows us to participate in their business plans and collectively we know that the companies are worth more together than as individual companies,” Peryea said. “Having worked for Bell, a Textron company with a corporate governance model in place, I have a lot of experience working under this type of structure and I envision that this is going to be very similar to that model.”

Jaunt Air Mobility CEO Marin Peryea.

Jaunt is developing an eVTOL that vertically takes off and lands like a helicopter, while transitioning into forward flight like a traditional fixed-wing aircraft. The company is developing Journey to certification requirements outlined by the rotorcraft Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular (AC) 29.1309-2.

“There is no new ruling that needs to take place or occur, because we’re certifying under existing Part 29 rules, which makes it easier for our engineers because they know what the design requirements are going to be. Certification specialists can validate our work because the familiarity with rotorcraft certification is already there. They will be able to understand how this aircraft operates and behaves in low-speed, its vertical takeoff and landing qualities and that gives us an advantage over some of the other aircraft configurations coming into this space that are truly not known today in terms of how they behave, especially in vertical modes of flight,” Peryea said.

Peryea said that one of the challenges for some of the newer never-seen-before aircraft configurations being proposed in the eVTOL space right now is how those designs will perform in extreme conditions or the “corners” of their respective flight envelopes.

“We call it the corners of the flight envelope,” Peryea said. “That’s one of the challenges that the rotorcraft industry has solved over the years of operating in high wind conditions, in urban areas. It requires a lot of control power and understanding of the flight dynamics of the aircraft and a lot of these new aircraft configurations don’t have any of that experience yet, it’s something they’re going to have to spend a lot of time testing and understanding. It’s really the corners of the flight envelope, because flying in nice calm easy air is no big challenge. It’s the extremes, the conditions where you really have to test your aircraft to make sure it remains safe for passengers in that flight mode.”

According to Peryea, the slow rotor capability of Journey is also a key element of its flight control system. Jaunt is using a computer system within the aircraft tasked with slowing the rotor tip speed in an effort to reduce Journey’s drag and associated vibration.

On the avionics side of Journey’s development, Jaunt is working with Garmin. Peryea said that the form factors of Garmin’s avionics systems that have been integrated into “smaller and lighter packages” in recent years, is complimentary to the space and weight savings necessary for achieving the payload, passenger capacity and payload targets that Jaunt has outlined.

Becoming an AIRO Group subsidiary also helps Jaunt Air Mobility’s funding of the development and testing of the battery technology key to Journey’s eVTOL performance and operational scope. BAE Systems first signed an electric energy management systems development agreement with Jaunt in December 2019, and has been working in conjunction with Triumph Aerospace Structures to integrate hardware and software for Journey’s battery management system as well as managing the actuation and high-voltage power distribution.

“We’ve been working closely with BAE, they’re developing the battery and battery management system and they have supplied to Boeing and Airbus and other aerospace companies and bring a tremendous amount of aircraft certification experience. They actually supply a lot of battery systems today for ground transportation and have a tremendous amount of experience developing these systems,” Peryea said.

(Jaunt Air Mobility)

In recent months, leading up to the new merge with AIRO Group, Jaunt has continued to expand into new partnerships and government-funded eVTOL competitions as well as research and development contracts. In May for example, the company appointed former Eric Côté, a former Bombardier executive, to serve as president of Jaunt Air Mobility Canada, where the company will open new design and manufacturing centers.

CAE has also been selected to lead the design and development of the Jaunt Aircraft Systems Integration Lab (JASIL) and VerdeGo Aero announced the results of 500 full-scale tests of the prototype hybrid system that they’re developing for Jaunt’s larger hybrid electric aircraft.

“AIRO has existing revenue in its current civilian and military operations and has historically reinvested earnings into Independent Research and Development (IRAD). Therefore, additional capital required to produce fully operational eVTOL aircraft is substantially reduced to our advantage compared with our competitors,” Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Executive Chairman of AIRO, said of their merger with Jaunt Air Mobility. “The current market capitalization of companies in the eVTOL space and urban air mobility platforms are very significant. AIRO additionally delivers diversified services across the UAM/Avionics/eVTOL/Defense marketplace.

AIRO is poised to be the leading publicly traded mid-tier aerospace and defense company after the void created by acquisitions in the public marketplace.”

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Jaunt Air Mobility plans to fly electric demonstrator in 2023

By paul brinkmann | may 9, 2022, jaunt to seek certification in canada first for its unusual slowed-rotor and wing design.

Update: After publication, Jaunt provided updated information about the date it intends to fly its demonstrator. This version includes the update.

Jaunt Air Mobility is readying the research and engineering infrastructure it will need to design and begin flying a demonstration version of its unusual slowed-rotor electric aircraft by 2023 as a key step in its plan to sell its Journey rotorcraft to air taxi operators.

The company intends to certify the winged rotorcraft with Transport Canada, and then with FAA under the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement that permits civil aviation certifications to be shared between the two countries. FAA has such agreements with dozens of countries.

“We expect FAA type certification by the end of 2026, and entry into service right after that. So we’re basically saying just under two years for certification work,” said Chief Operations Officer Jesse Crispino, a former U.S. Navy helicopter test pilot, in an interview with me.

Jaunt and other companies are planning to build or operate eVTOLs, electrical vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, for air taxi services.

Crispino said the company chose to certify first with Transport Canada in a belief that the certification could come through more quickly given that multiple eVTOL makers are seeking certifications from FAA. “They’re a little busy,” he said.

In addition to Canada, for initial sales Jaunt is targeting companies in Brazil, elsewhere in South America and Italy, with regulatory approval to be granted under similar bilateral agreements with FAA. Eventually Jaunt plans to sell in the United States as well.

Last month the Dallas-based company announced it will perform research and development and build its Journey aircraft in Montreal.

“We saw a tremendous opportunity in Quebec and Montreal, because there’s a lot of aerospace talent that’s actually living there and working in other industries,” Crispino said, referring to Bombardier Aerospace’s long history of building aircraft there.

Jaunt plans to pay $100 million to L&T Technology Services, an engineering services company based in India, to open the Montreal facility by a date it did not disclose. The company described the contract as “multiyear” but did not specify how many years. While the company will remain headquartered in Dallas, about 95% of the development work will be done by the Jaunt Canada affiliate.

Jaunt was formed in 2019 after it acquired designs and demonstrator aircraft from Texas-based Carter Aviation Technologies, an aviation research and development company and maker of the CarterCopter design. Carter had received $1 million in funding from NASA for development.

Carter had developed slowed-rotor design for the craft, which reduces drag by slowing the rotor, Crispino said.

Like the CarterCopter, the Jaunt Journey eVTOL will be a small helicopter with wings, with all the traditional controls of a helicopter.

“And then as you fly and get some speed on the aircraft, the rotor will slow down — giving you the efficiencies in terms of less drag,” he said. “Then the wings pick up the lift, and now it flies more like an airplane.”

In this cruise phase, about 5% of the lift will come from the slowed rotor, Crispino said.

Jaunt doesn’t disclose how much investment it has attracted, he said.

The company plans to focus on its aircraft and not infrastructure. “We may be assisting others with their building vertiports, but we won’t build them ourselves,” he added.

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Jaunt Air Mobility participates in VFS’s Transformative Vertical Flight (TVF) 2024 meeting on Feb. 6–8 in Santa Clara, California; Martin Peryea, CEO, to provide an update on Jaunt Journey Program

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Future Transport: Urban Flights – Journey to Advanced Air Mobility – Pg 46/47

AIRO Group to seek public cash to fund aerospace and defense ventures

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• 05 Sep 2021 09:49 AM

Jaunt’s Journey

By Kenneth I. Swartz Vertiflite Sept/Oct 2021

Whether it’s a short jaunt or a longer journey, one eVTOL start-up is taking the road less traveled to make vertical flight more accessible to the common man.

For nearly a century, civil vertical flight has been nearly exclusively the domain of helicopters or gyroplanes suspended beneath a single, large, spinning overhead rotor. However, experts have long known that a “lift-compound” rotorcraft (i.e. with a wing) could achieve greater cruise speeds and efficiency than a traditional helicopter if the rotor was slowed to reduce drag during wingborne flight, but there were many technical and other challenges to overcome.

Jaunt Air Mobility was created in 2019 to bring the world’s first electric Slowed Rotor Compound (SRC) aircraft to market, leveraging recent advances in electric motors and controllers, lithium-ion batteries and fly-by-wire flight controls to overcome some of these challenges. Jaunt acquired the intellectual property of Carter Aviation Technologies, which had spent 25 years refining all the systems and components required to operate as a high-speed and energy-efficient compound helicopter, part airplane and part helicopter — which Jaunt says is the most efficient electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) configuration.

Jaunt’s five-seat Journey compound rotorcraft might not look as futuristic as an eVTOL aircraft with tilting wings, tilting propellers or multiple thrusters to transition from vertical to forward flight, but simplicity has its own elegance.

The Journey is designed to achieve fast and efficient high-speed flight, and to safely manage a loss of power using the wings and the stored energy of the high inertia/low disk-loading rotor to safely autorotate like a helicopter or glide like a fixed-wing aircraft to the ground in a controlled manner if it loses power at any speed or altitude.

From a certification perspective, Jaunt is the only company today that has declared that its eVTOL aircraft is being specifically designed to meet existing US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) FAR 29 transport category rotorcraft rules; it will also have Category A (CAT A) multi-engine performance in the event that an electric motor or propeller fails.

Jaunt believes the combination of good aircraft design and rigorous certification testing will make the Journey, “the safest, quietest, and operationally efficient all-electric air taxi.” This is a bold claim — until you understand the aircraft and the company.

Uber Elevate

At the first Uber Elevate Summit in Los Angeles in April 2017, held seven months after publishing its landmark white paper, “ Fast-Forwarding to a Future of On-Demand Urban Air Transportation ,” Uber named five companies as air vehicle partners (see www.vtol.org/uber ) — one of which was light aircraft maker Mooney International Corp. (see “ Charging Forward: New eVTOL Concepts Advance ,” Vertiflite , July/Aug 2017). Carter Aviation Technologies revealed it had teamed up with Mooney to explore the development of its SRC technology for eVTOL aircraft.

Since 1994, Jay Carter, Jr. had designed, built and test flown four different SRC technology demonstrator gyrocopters that coupled the speed, range and efficiency of an airplane with the runway independence of a helicopter (see “Modern Day Autogyros: Back to the Future,” Vertiflite , Fall 2003 ). Together, Carter’s SRC flight demonstrators have logged 300 piloted hours.

However, Carter’s deal to bring an electric SRC aircraft to market suffered a major setback when Mooney’s CEO retired and the Chinese owner dropped out of the Uber program. Convinced that electric SRC technology had a future, Carter and its supporters, such as Georgia Tech’s Dr. Daniel P. Schrage, started searching for a new business partner.

Jaunt Air Mobility

At the Vertical Flight Society’s 6th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium in Mesa, Arizona, in January 2019, VFS announced that Jaunt Air Mobility had acquired the rights to Carter’s SRC design, including its eVTOL air taxi work.

The start-up was co-founded by entrepreneur Kaydon Stanzione, an engineer and former Pentagon advisor (and prior Membership Chair on the VFS Board of Directors), and Martin Peryea, a well-respected senior rotorcraft engineer, executive and technologist. Stanzione was familiar with the technology through VFS affiliations and research he had conducted on SRC technology for the US Special Operations Forces, and was re-introduced to Carter at the VFS Forum 74 in May 2018.

Peryea worked for Bell Helicopter for 33 years, rising through the engineering organization to become VP of Commercial Engineering, chief engineer for Bell’s US government programs and the fly-by-wire super medium Model 525 Relentless, and a highly regarded Bell Technical Fellow. In 2016, he left Bell to become VP of Engineering at Triumph Aerospace Structures (sold earlier this year to Arlington Capital Partners and renamed Qarbon Aerospace).

In 2010, Peryea had participated in a critical design review of Carter’s four-seat Personal Air Vehicle (PAV), after AAI Corporation signed a licensing agreement in 2009 to use the PAV as a platform for a vertical takeoff, high-speed, long-range unmanned aircraft system (UAS). AAI (since absorbed into Textron Systems) was a subsidiary of Bell-parent Textron, and Bell engineers supported AAI for this effort.

When Uber launched the Elevate project, Peryea met with many eVTOL developers, including Carter, to understand how Triumph could play a role in the emerging industry. Peryea left Triumph to become Jaunt’s chief technical officer (CTO) in April 2019, and two months later, Uber announced on the opening day of the third Elevate Summit in Washington, DC, that the Jaunt Journey SRC was the sixth aircraft being developed for Elevate.

The first Elevate Summit played a significant role in mobilizing global interest and investment in eVTOL technology and the air mobility ecosystem, and Jaunt immediately benefited from Uber’s market insights, which established very specific performance, noise, economic and passenger experience targets.

Uber only selected vehicle partners that were developing all-electric VTOL aircraft with wings, which is the most energy-efficient means of achieving high cruise speeds. Jaunt found itself in good company as Uber vetted scores of companies and designs, but only selected eight companies as vehicle partners — Aurora Flight Sciences (now part of Boeing), Bell, Embraer, Hyundai, Joby, Overair (a spinoff of Karem Aircraft), Pipistrel and Jaunt — with only Jaunt developing a rotorcraft with a single-main rotor.

Carter Aviation Technologies

Since its inception in 1994, Carter Aviation Technologies has been granted multiple patents for SRC aircraft and related technology.

Much has been written about Carter’s quest to achieve a high Mu ratio (the ratio of airspeed to rotor tip speed), which he saw as essential to achieve high-speed, long-range rotary-wing flight (see “Carter’s Slowed-Rotor/Compound: Putting a New Spin on an Old Concept," Vertiflite , March/April 2013 ).

His first prototype was the CarterCopter Technology Demonstrator (CCTD) autogyro (N121CC), first flown on Sept. 23, 1998, which had a max takeoff weight (MTOW) of 4,200 lb (1,900 kg). The futuristic CCTD had a five-place, pressurized, largely composite cabin, a 32-ft (9.8-m) diameter unpowered rotor, a 32-ft span wing, twin tail and an 8-ft (2.4-m) variable pitch pusher propeller powered by a 325-hp (242-kW) Chevrolet Corvette LS-6 engine.

Carter's main focus was researching stability in high-speed flight, so the demonstrators were kept less complex by achieving vertical flight with a jump takeoff. The stiff, high-inertia rotor was powered on the ground to a high rotational speed of 365–425 RPM to achieve a jump takeoff. The propeller then increased pitch for forward flight and the rotor was unpowered, initially driven by inertia, transitioning to autorotation as the air passed through it. The aircraft gradually transitioned to wingborne flight, which was complete by about 125 mph (200 km/h).

The CCTD was partially funded by NASA research grants and private investors, and achieved its maximum Mu of 1.0 on June 17, 2005, but was permanently grounded after a hard landing.

The Carter PAV autogyro was the company’s second-generation technology demonstrator, initially with a MTOW of 3,800 lb (1,724 kg). The PAV featured a four-seat cabin, 45-ft (13.7-m) diameter rotor and wing, and a conventional 250–350 hp Lycoming TIO-540 piston engine driving a 78-inch, (2-m) pusher propeller.

The PAV prototype (N110AV) first flew without wings in Olney, Texas, in January 2011, and with wings attached a year later. The second PAV (N210AV) made its first flight in 2014.

In 2014, Jay Carter, Jr. received the VFS Paul E. Haueter Award for an outstanding technical contribution to the field of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft development other than a helicopter. The Carter PAV ultimately achieved flights at advanced Mu ratios as high as 1.16, an altitude of almost 18,000 ft (5,500 m), a level flight true airspeed of 214 mph (344 km/h), varying rotor speed down to 100 RPM, and a flight of more than one hour.

Jaunt Journey

Illustrations of the 2017 Mooney/Carter SRC electric air taxi depict a sleek rotorcraft with a two-bladed main rotor, low wing with a swivelling thruster mounted on the tail for anti-torque control and forward thrust.

The Jaunt Journey SRC design has some resemblance, but now has a high wing and four wing-mounted propellers for anti-torque. Independent, redundant electric motors power the main rotor for vertical flight and hover.

The main rotor RPM (and power) gradually decreases as the aircraft accelerates and the wings begin to provide lift. In cruise, the rotor is nearly unloaded but still rotating at its optimum speed to minimize total aircraft power consumption and maintain rotor stability. Since rotor rotational drag increases with the cube of RPM, when the RPM is reduced by a third, the rotor will generate 4% of the rotational drag and 18% of the total rotor drag compared to flight at full RPM.

The Journey is designed to safely, efficiently and quietly fly a pilot and four passengers, with a range of 80–120 miles (130–190 km), cruise at speeds up to 175 mph (280 km/h), and have a noise signature of 55 dB in cruise and 69 dB during takeoff and landing (compared to 85 dB and 90 dB, respectively, for a similarly sized helicopter).

One benefit of acquiring Carter’s SRC technology is that the Journey can use a similar rotor and rotorhead to the one Carter developed. The rotor head features a flexible-beam assembly for collective pitch control and a tilting hub in lieu of cyclic control.

To achieve optimum speed, the Jaunt Journey reduces RPM and unloads the rotor in wingborne flight to reduce power, vibration, loads and noise. Carter progressively refined his rotor design by adding heavy tungsten tip weights ahead of the blade center of pressure (the quarter-chord line), forcing a large forward center of gravity while keeping the center of lift near the quarter-chord line.

The weights provide high rotational energy storage and stability in high-speed flight. All rotorcraft blades use tip weights in the leading edge for stability, but since the retreating blade on the Jaunt Journey is in reverse flow, the loss of stability is overcome by adding additional weight, which improves the advancing blade stability and the entire rotor system stability.

Historically, the major technological barrier to introducing SRC technology on a helicopter had been the lack of a certified direct drive aircraft engine or multi-speed gearbox that could cover the wide RPM range. Carter foresaw the benefits of electric aircraft propulsion a decade ago when he filed a patent in November 2011 for a “Power Rotor Drive for Slowed Rotor Wing Aircraft” that used an electric motor or a variable speed transmission. This was followed in April 2012 with a patent application for an “Electric Motor Powered Rotor Drive for Slowed Rotor Winged Aircraft.”

Jaunt has also signed a partnership with VerdeGo Aero (see “ Hard-Core Hybrids ,” Vertiflite , May/June 2021), which is developing a family of hybrid-electric engines that could provide the aircraft with extended range or the ability to fly in regions with no electric charging infrastructure.

The wing design is similar to the high-lift wing of a glider and optimized for cruise flight rather than takeoffs and landings. According to a patent application filed by Carter, Jeffrey R. Lewis and Peryea, published in November 2019, one of the benefits of placing propellers at the wing tips is “to reduce the wing tip vortex and induced drag.”

The primary role of the tilting mast on the Journey is to maintain an optimum pitch of the wings and the fuselage, providing the pilot with good forward visibility, keeping the cabin level for passengers, and providing the aircraft with a wide center of gravity when loading passengers or cargo. Ride quality is further enhanced by the mast’s flexible supports, which are designed to isolate rotor loads from the passenger cabin.

Jaunt is raising funds to advance its design and develop a full-scale flight demonstrator aircraft and supporting infrastructure. The timeline calls for the first flight of the preproduction Journey in 2023, low-rate production in 2025 and certification in 2025-2026.

The company’s management team has extensive experience in aircraft design, validation, test, certification and commercialization of aircraft.

The company’s senior leadership now includes Jesse Crispino, Chief Operating Officer; Dr. Simon Briceno, Chief Commercial Officer; Dr. Chittur (Venkat) Venkatasubban, Chief Engineering Fellow (Flight Technology); Dr. Sanjay Gattani, Chief Engineer Aircraft Certification; Jeff Lewis, Senior Engineer; Robert Pratt, Program Manager; and Nancy Richardson, Chief Communication Officer.

Crispino was previously the director of the Systems Integration Management Office for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, US Army Special Operations Aviation Command. He’s an Army experimental test pilot (fixed- and rotary-wing) with certification experience on six Army aircraft.

Briceno was a member of the research faculty and head of the Transformative Aviation Concepts Division in the Aerospace Department at Georgia Tech. He conducted several landmark studies on AAM with NASA and led aviation safety programs with the FAA.

Venkatasubban has 40 years of experience in senior positions leading engineering teams in the aerospace industry at companies such as Cirrus Aircraft, Bombardier Aerospace, Raytheon Aircraft, Hawker-Beechcraft, Bell and Terrafugia.

In September 2020, Peryea became CEO of Jaunt as a new round of fundraising began.

Collaborative Industry Relationships

Many of the companies selected to be Uber Elevate partners have gone out of their way to highlight how vertically integrated they are as a company, as far as designing, building and operating their eVTOL aircraft.

Jaunt is taking a more traditional aerospace industry approach that leverages agreements with Tier 1 aerospace systems integrators for technical and cost risk reduction. In the past two years, Jaunt has established collaborations with key industry participants, two of whom have been named: BAE Systems and CAE.

Peryea says one of the attractions for Tier 1 companies is the high production volumes the advanced air mobility (AAM) market is expected to generate. This provides an opportunity to recover non-recurring engineering costs in a much shorter period than for traditional commercial and business aviation aircraft or helicopters. And there is also an opportunity to apply systems and manufacturing processes developed for eVTOL aircraft to other products sooner than would traditionally be possible with low-rate production programs.

Jaunt believes that vertically integrated eVTOL developers will be challenged to master all the technologies integrated into their aircraft, and regulators will be very cautious certifying mission-critical systems developed by companies they have never worked with before.

Flight Controls

In December 2019, Jaunt announced it was partnering with BAE Systems to provide the battery energy management system, high voltage power distribution and flight control computers for the Journey.

The flight control system resembles that of the Bell 525, for which BAE developed the fly-by-wire flight controls when Peryea was the aircraft’s chief engineer. In the cockpit, the controls have been designed for simplified vehicle operations (SVO). The pedals control the yaw axis through actuation of the rudder and differential propeller thrust. Like a helicopter, the left stick controls the vertical axis via main rotor blade pitch. The right stick controls the longitudinal axis — through longitudinal hub tilt, mast angle tilt and the elevator — and the lateral axis — including lateral rate, lateral speed, and position hold — through lateral hub tilt and aileron deflection.

Jaunt says the flight control system employs a traditional back-driven, force-feedback stick trim management system to provide the pilot with full awareness of the remaining control margin by providing a displacement trim. It also provides automatic entry into autorotation in the event of total electric propulsion loss — the control laws manage blade and mast tilt to maintain RPM and establish the aircraft for steady state autorotative flight.

Other design features include CAT A performance to overcome a failed motor condition (like a “one engine inoperative” or OEI); the control laws will automatically adjust the power on the remaining motors to compensate, and performance is enhanced by tactile limit cueing for the collective stick during CAT A takeoff and landing. The Journey will also use automatic mode switching between all flight modes and transition between various states (as determined by speed or altitude), without needing any mode switches.

BAE Systems also has 20-plus years of experience developing and integrating electric propulsion systems, which in the case of the Journey will include multiple electric motors powering the rotor and the propellers.

“We are leveraging decades of experience in flight controls and energy management systems to develop solutions that will enable the next generation of flight,” said Ehtisham Siddiqui, VP and General Manager of Controls and Avionics Solutions at BAE Systems. “We are continually advancing the state of the art in high-integrity energy systems, specifically battery technologies, and have validated that our designs will meet the requirements for advanced air mobility aircraft. We are proud to bring a holistic, integrated approach to controls and power management for Jaunt.”

In May, Crane Aerospace & Electronics announced that it was collaborating with BAE to provide specific expertise on the power management systems for Jaunt. Crane will conduct a series of studies to explore the exact power needs to determine an optimum power electronics solution for the Journey.

Uber established very specific direct operating cost (DOC) targets for each of its air vehicle partners.

Jaunt says the Journey will cost about 44% less to operate than a similar-size light turbine helicopter (like the Bell 505) on a flight hour basis, with most of the savings resulting from lower energy and maintenance costs — even including battery replacement costs.

The company believes the Journey’s performance and economics will make it very competitive for a number of AAM missions (e.g. urban air taxi, airport shuttle, middle-mile freight), as well as a replacement for helicopters used for air ambulance, search and rescue, law enforcement and humanitarian relief missions.

Jaunt says the Journey will be among the quietest VTOL aircraft — helicopter or eVTOL — flying in tomorrow’s skies.

The primary reason is that the aircraft’s main rotor is significantly larger than the two-bladed rotors on similar capacity helicopters, such as the Bell 206B and Robinson R66 — which are both 33-ft (10.1-m) in diameter — resulting in lower blade loading and a much slower RPM.

Jaunt believes this will make the Journey 100 times quieter (a 20 dB reduction in noise) than similar weight helicopters during takeoff, landing and overflight.

Canadian Connection

In 2019, Jaunt began formulating a strategy to move the majority of the company’s design, manufacturing and aircraft certification activities to Canada.

This was influenced by Peryea’s long association with the Canadian aerospace industry and Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), which began 35 years ago when Bell opened its factory at Mirabel, north of Montreal, and transitioned all its commercial helicopter production and certification activities to Canada over the next four years.

The favorable impressions were further reinforced when Triumph was contracted to build the high-speed wing for Bombardier’s flagship Global 7500 business jet (Bombardier later bought the wing factory from Triumph).

Over the past 10 years, Quebec has also established research programs to support green aviation initiatives, with the Journey well aligned with these objectives (see “ Canada and Quebec Fund ‘Green’ Aerospace Initiatives ,” pg. 40).

Transport Canada is also highly regarded when it comes to commercial aircraft certification. In fact, the centralized aircraft certification office in Ottawa probably has more experience certifying commercial rotorcraft than any regional FAA office on its own, with this especially true when considering all the new helicopters certified or upgraded in Canada by Bell. In addition, TCCA is responsible for all new helicopter models certified by the FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that are introduced to Canada, which is the world’s second-largest civil rotorcraft market.

Peryea also considered Quebec a very favorable business site since the province is very supportive of aerospace innovation and many world-leading, locally-based aerospace manufacturers — such as Bell, Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney, CAE and their suppliers — have benefited as a result.

To support this goal, Jaunt announced on May 6 that it would establish design and manufacturing operations in Canada, had appointed Eric Côté as President of the Canadian operations (see “Leadership Moves,” Vertiflite , July/Aug 2021 ), and was actively seeking Canadian investors.

Côté is a pilot and has recent CEO experience in leading the Soucy Group, a worldwide engineering and manufacturing organization with 10 independent companies; it has 1,800 employees active in the defense, power sports, industrial and agriculture sectors. During Côté's 15-year tenure at Soucy, his strategic vision and leadership allowed him to set up a strong and mobilized organization with an increased presence on five continents.

Before his time at Soucy, Côté spent 15 years with Bombardier Aerospace in senior-level positions (manufacturing engineering, operations strategies, continuous improvement and industrialization), including the establishment of aerospace manufacturing and assembly organizations in other countries.

On May 12, CAE announced it will support Jaunt in developing the company's aircraft systems integration lab in Montreal, Canada. As part of the agreement, CAE and Jaunt intend to build an engineering simulator that will accelerate cockpit design and system development, and will reduce airworthiness flight test time. The Jaunt Aircraft Systems Integration Lab (JASIL) program is designed to de-risk the aircraft program's schedule and manage development costs by identifying integration issues and proving failure modes early in the program.

Certification Path

When Jaunt first announced that it was planning to certify the five-seat Journey at a transport category rotorcraft — FAR Part 29, TCCA CAR 529 and EASA CS-29 — it raised a few questions, since the aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of less than the 7,000-lb (3,175-kg) Part 27 cutoff.

But Peryea is quick to explain that Jaunt is using Part 29 as the certification basis for the Journey because it represents the highest safety standards for rotorcraft. He believes that’s what passengers and communities will expect if eVTOL aircraft are flying overhead at high frequencies.

The company is very confident about the technology readiness of the SRC system and the ability of each of its technology partners to meet Part 29 requirements, which will also comply with EASA Special Condition for VTOL (SC-VTOL) for “Category Enhanced.”

Compared to the rotorcraft related requirements of Part 23 and Part 27, Part 29 requires that flight critical systems meet the requirements of probability of catastrophic failure of less than 10-9 per flight hour. It also requires the use of Systems Safety Assessment processes, robust software design processes to meet Development Assurance Level (DAL) A for functions that could exhibit catastrophic failures, and sets out specific requirements for bird strike, fatigue and damage tolerance, lightning strike and fire protection. Category A means the aircraft can land or carry on a flight if there is a critical motor failure.

Many of Jaunt’s competitors plan to certify their aircraft under FAR Part 23 regulations, but Peryea points out that rules for eVTOL aircraft are still under development and no one has successfully completed a certification program for the latest Part 23 (Amendment 64) rules.

Ecosystem Development

The opportunity to develop an eVTOL aircraft for the Uber Elevate ridesharing network helped define a lot of the early characteristics of the Journey, but the company recognized that it needed to look beyond Elevate’s three launch cities of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Los Angeles, California; and Melbourne, Australia.

In October 2020, Jaunt announced the establishment of the Access Skyways alliance, a group of partner companies providing expertise to support the integration of AAM.

Jaunt announced it had signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) with PS&S Integrated Services, an architectural and engineering firm with experience in vertiport design, and PRICE Systems, which specializes in predictive cost modeling and has the capability to calculate passenger demand for air taxi services.

The expansion of the Access Skyways is one of the responsibilities of Briceno, which includes establishing partnerships across the AAM ecosystem, similar to what Jaunt is doing with the Tier 1 companies on the aircraft development side.

Jaunt has also secured launch customers for the Journey, which have already provided important insights regarding desirable aircraft features and infrastructure requirements, Peryea noted.

Ongoing Research

In September 2020, Jay Carter hosted a flight demonstration of the PAV for Jaunt employees and consultants (see “ Jaunt Starts a New Chapter ,” Vertiflite , Nov/Dec 2020). Briceno says it was a very worthwhile undertaking because it allowed everyone to see firsthand how an SRC flies.

Earlier this year, Jaunt completed three Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) studies for the AFWERX Agility Prime office, via contracts through the Air Force Research Laboratory. These contracts covered extreme fast charging (XFC), advanced manufacturing of thermoplastics, and acoustics.

Jaunt worked with BAE Systems and Binghamton University in New York to assist in designing a large-scale, fast-charging system nearly twice as efficient as current chargers on the market today.

Working with Triumph/Qarbon Aerospace and Georgia Tech, Jaunt validated and quantified the benefits of using thermoplastics for large-scale structures in the manufacturing process of this new aviation segment.

Lastly, with Penn State and Continuum Dynamics, Inc., Jaunt validated the Journey’s acoustic profile. The company noted in a recent press release, “Our acoustics work confirmed our eVTOL aircraft will operate at the lowest possible noise levels capable with today’s technology and be imperceivable when flying overhead.”

Jaunt expects to establish similar research partnerships with companies and academic organizations in Quebec in the future.

Jaunt Air Mobility believes that the future of vertical flight is harnessing the power of electric propulsion to make slowed rotor compound rotorcraft exceptionally better.

In addition, it recently submitted an SRC design to the US Air Force’s High-Speed VTOL (HSVTOL) Challenge (see “ Air Force Challenges Industry for High-Speed VTOL ,” pg. 22). This configuration, called the MAV55, uses VerdeGo Aero’s hybrid-electric drive system technology with the GE Aviation Catalyst engine. The MAV55 is designed for an 11,000-lb (5,000-kg) useful load and would carry 12 troops to 1,400 nm (2,600 km) at a cruise speed of 268 kt (500 km/h).

Jaunt also sees other potential applications of SRC technology. With its low noise and low-cost approach, Jaunt Journeys could provide better solutions for the common man, the warfighter and more.

About the Author

Ken Swartz runs the agency Aeromedia Communications in Toronto, Canada. He specializes in aerospace market analysis and corporate communications. He’s worked in the regional airline, commercial helicopter and commercial aircraft manufacturing industries for 30+ years and has reported on vertical flight since 1978. In 2010, he received the Helicopter Association International’s “Communicator of the Year” award. 

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This New All-Electric VTOL Is the Airplane-Helicopter Combo the Future Always Promised

Jaunt air mobility says the journey will have 175-mph cruise speed and be 65 percent quieter than a traditional helicopter, all with a silky-smooth ride., nicolas zart, nicolas zart's most recent stories.

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With Uber Elevate ’s announcement that it plans to start its first urban air mobility network in 2023, the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) race is on. Uber’s partnership with Joby is big news, as is Joby’s electric four-person aircraft , but Jaunt Air Mobility could be an equally important partner.

Jaunt has introduced the Journey, a radically different type of “compound aircraft” that combines what it sees as the best features of helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes. Technically, it’s called a gyrocopter, an aircraft type that has been around since the mid-‘30s.

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But the Jaunt Journey is a very advanced version of the gyrocopter, with breakthroughs made possible by its electric motors.

Designed to cruise at 175 mph with a single pilot and four passengers, the Journey is quiet, safe, and highly efficient. It is not an airplane, though it flies like one. It’s also not strictly a helicopter (Jaunt says it will be 63 percent quieter than traditional choppers) but behaves like one on takeoffs and landings. It will also be classified as a rotorcraft. And it’s 100 percent electric.

“We can guarantee that you will never spill your martini when riding in a Jaunt Journey because it takes off vertically, transitions to fly like a plane and then lands vertically,” Kaydon Stanzione, CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility told Robb Report . “It’s LevelFly all the way.”

Designed for an unusually smooth ride, the Jaunt Journey promises to be a leading eVTOL in the air-taxi market. It recently signed a partnership agreement with Uber Elevate to be included in its UAM fleet.  Jaunt Air Mobility

As a rule, gyrocopters tend to tilt forward while taking off and then backwards when landing. This means everything needs to be secured upon takeoff and landings.  Jaunt has eliminated that with its “LevelFly” solution that nullifies the gyrocopter effect. The mast tilts forward and backward so that the cabin stays level at all times. As Jaunt likes to say, laptops won’t go flying on their own during takeoffs and landings.

The Jaunt also uses what the company calls Reduced Rotor Operating Speed Aircraft (ROSA) technology. This technology reduces the rotor speed in cruise mode for a quieter flight. This will help it meet noise regulations for residential communities. Its electric engines also do not require combustible liquids for fuel, and produce zero emissions.

Jaunt is currently working with BAE Systems on electrical power systems. The company expects FAA certification will begin by 2023 for the Journey and be achieved by 2025. Its demonstrators have flown 100-plus hours, with more than 1,000 takeoffs and landings.

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One of Uber's newest partners plans to fly electric helicopters that can charge in 7 minutes. Take a look at the Jaunt Journey eVTOL.

• Uber and Jaunt Air Mobility became partners in 2019 with Jaunt tasked with producing an electric take-off and land aircraft or eVTOL for Uber Elevate.
• Jaunt's design for its Journey eVTOL uses gyrocopter technology with wing-mounted and top rotors to perform vertical take-offs and then propel quickly into forward flight.
• The company expects certification in 2025 with autonomous flight capabilities coming in 2030. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

Uber first announced at its 2019 Elevate conference that Jaunt Air Mobility was chosen as a partner for the next step in the ride-share company's urban air mobility endeavor.

Moving forward with Uber's desire to utilize a fleet of electric take-off and land, or eVTOL, aircraft to soar over congesed roadways, Jaunt is currently developing a gyrocopter-style aircraft with both vertical and horizontal rotors. The Jaunt Journey builds upon VTOL technology that incorporates helicopter-like top rotors and airplane-like propellers. 

Unlike tiltrotor aircraft, the Jaunt Journey has three rotors in total, two wing-mounted engines for forward flight and one top rotor for take-off and landings, which is then slowed during flight. The company's flagship craft can carry four passengers with one pilot and aims to ultimately fly autonomously. 

Uber began experimenting in urban air mobility with helicopter operations in major cities primarily connecting downtown heliports with major airports. Notably, Uber Copter operates in New York City connecting heliports in Manhattan with John F. Kennedy International Airport using helicopters operated by HeliFlite. 

Just like its ground-based ride-shares, passengers can book the approximately 10-minute helicopter ride via the Uber app complete with transfers if needed. Uber Elevate promises to be no different, according to a video posted on its website, with new rooftop heliports dubbed "Uber Skyports" being built to support the futuristic mode of transport. 

Take a closer look at the airborne Ubers of the future.

Uber and Jaunt Air Mobility first announced the partnership at the 2019 Uber Elevate conference in Washington. Jaunt joins industry heavyweights including Bell, Embraer, and Hyundai as one of eight partners.

Source: Jaunt Air Mobility

The idea for the Jaunt Journey is built upon existing gyrocopter and slowed rotor technology. Basically, the top rotor is used to launch the aircraft into the air, at which point the wing-mounted propellers take over.

As the top rotor generates lift more so than the wings, the aircraft can feature smaller wings making for a compact vehicle. Once in the air, the top rotor is slowed by the air and rotates slowly, generating less drag that would slow the craft allowing an increase in the speeds at which it can travel.

The aircraft is being designed to fly at a top speed of 175 miles per hour and fly at up to 18,000 miles per hour. It is limited, however, to a range of 60 miles on a single charge, enough to fly between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore but not from New York to the Hamptons without a recharging stop.

The eVTOLS won't even need to use traditional heliports, according to materials released by the company, with parking lots and building rooftops easily convertible to "Uber Skyports."

Source: Uber

The Journey differs from tiltrotors in that all rotors remain stationary and are simply activated at different points in each flight.

Uber is similarly experimenting with other futuristic VTOLS including the Bell NEXUS, a four-engine tiltrotor.

While larger aircraft like the AW609 have plenty of alternate uses including inter-city travel and long-distance flying, the Journey is ideal for short intra-city air taxi flights thanks to its jump take-off and land capabilities and quick transition to forward flight once airborne.

For quick turnaround times, Jaunt is developing the Journey's battery and charge stations to recharge the aircraft enough for its next flight in as little as seven minutes during peak travel times. Normal charge times are around 15 minutes, the company told Business Insider in an email.

With a planned ceiling of 18,000 feet and IFR-rated capabilities, the Journey will similarly be able to fly in or above adverse weather conditions.

The eVTOL concept is the next step in Uber's aerial ambitions that has already taken shape in the form of helicopter service in New York City with contracted helicopter flights to JFK Airport.

Those flights, however, may soon be operated by the Jaunt Journey with the company planning to receive certification in 2025 and begin autonomous operations in 2030.

• Main content

INCHEON, South Korea & DALLAS & MONTREAL--( BUSINESS WIRE )--MintAir Co. LTD ("MintAir") signed a Letter of Intent with Jaunt Air Mobility LLC ("Jaunt") to form a strategic partnership and purchase Jaunt Journey electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. MintAir has agreed to order up to 40 of Jaunt's aircraft to bring air mobility services to the Korean markets. MintAir will serve as Jaunt’s exclusive Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) partner in the Korean market.

Jaunt is approaching the design and certification of an eVTOL from a unique market position utilizing Slowed Rotor Compound (SRC) technologies and partnerships with Tier 1 aerospace suppliers. "The Jaunt Journey's aircraft design offers the safest air taxi configuration that is operationally efficient, quiet, and sustainable," says Martin Peryea, CEO of Jaunt. Martin Peryea has more than 40 years of commercial aviation experience certifying rotorcraft.

MintAir is building an AAM service in the Republic of Korea and will work with Jaunt to launch commercial passenger air transportation operations in several Korean markets. MintAir intends to launch AAM services with a particular type of eVTOL design, electric rotorcraft with a single main rotor like the Jaunt Journey. Electric rotorcraft provide superior safety through autorotation, energy-saving efficiency, lower operating costs, and a clear path to certification.

"Our mission is to develop the safest Advanced Air Mobility service in both urban and rural environments based on sound ESG management,” quoted Eugene Choi, CEO of MintAir, and “Jaunt Air Mobility is committed to those same principles throughout the aircraft's lifecycle. And we are confident the Jaunt Journey will transport the public with the highest level of safety."

"We are pleased to team with MintAir to bring this new form of advanced air transportation to the Korean markets," said Simon Briceno, Chief Commercial Officer for Jaunt. "We are excited to showcase our safe and efficient aircraft to the Korean public."

Jaunt Air Mobility aircraft will be designed and manufactured in Montreal, Canada. President Eric Cote stated, “Canada is a global exporter of aerospace and with customers like MintAir, Jaunt is developing partnerships worldwide.”

About MintAir

MintAir is a startup company building an Advanced Air Mobility Service in South Korea. MintAir's approach is to facilitate an ecosystem of partners to accelerate the adoption of electric flight in Korea. A former global engineering parts manufacturing company, MintAir will take advantage of its global business experience and network to accelerate the development of the Advanced Air Mobility ecosystem in Asia-Pacific markets. Beginning with air taxi operation, MintAir will specialize in electric rotorcraft with a large rotor common in a traditional helicopter. Electric rotorcraft provides superior safety under power loss situations through autorotation, energy saving better hover efficiency, lower operating cost, and a clear path to certification via existing regulations. For more information about the company, visit www.mintair.kr .

About Jaunt

Jaunt Air Mobility is a transformative aerospace company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with design and manufacturing located in Montreal, Canada. Jaunt is building the next generation of eVTOL (electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) and hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft for faster, quieter, and safer travel over urban areas, moving people and cargo. Jaunt is the global leader in developing Slowed Rotor Compound (SRC) technology. The Jaunt Journey is the world's first electric aircraft combining helicopter and airplane flight capabilities. Jaunt has teamed with Tier 1 aerospace partners to develop the Journey and work with global operators to provide this new form of travel. Jaunt offers the most operationally efficient aircraft with a zero-carbon footprint. Jaunt is a recognized global brand of AIRO Group Holdings, Inc. (“AIRO”). AIRO is a mid-tier aerospace and defense company offering industry-leading technology and services in Electric Air Mobility, Advanced Avionics, Commercial Drones and Training uniquely capable of addressing a broad spectrum of aerospace markets. For more information, visit www.jauntairmobility.com and www.theairogroup.com .

Nancy Richardson, Jaunt Air Mobility, [email protected]

Jongwon “JP” Park, MintAir Co. LTD, [email protected]

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Jaunt Journey – Maybe the Most Unique eVTOL

Dean Sigler 10/28/2023 Batteries , Electric Aircraft Components , Electric Powerplants , Sky Taxis , Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The Jaunt Journey may be the most unique eVTOL (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) machine coming to market, and it relies on something old and several things new for its advanced take on Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).  What makes it special is its combining autogiro-like technology with electric power and some different approaches to the transitions between vertical and horizontal flight.

Jaunt promises to carry a pilot and four passengers 80 to 120 miles, pushing it into the realm of regional air mobility.  It can top out at 175 miles per hour, or about the upper limits of most helicopters while pressing down with only 55 dBa of sound pressure, considerably below that of any helicopter.  Its performance and several distinguishing features make it all the more unique.

Somewhat Like an Autogiro

Autogiros were pre-helicopter rotary-wing aircraft that could lift off and alight quickly because of a large, usually un-driven, series of blades above the fuselage.  Note how easily this autogiro lands on a golf course.  Note also that the machine has small wings to lighten the load on the blades.

Kellett K-3 Autogiro landing — excerpt from the movie “It Happened One Night” (1934) Also, notice the production error when the character King Westley, the pilot, exits from the K-3 Autogiro, you do not see the real pilot, but when they cut to another angle, you can see the real pilot hunching forward, hiding from the original camera.  (YouTube.com)

More Like a Gyrodyne

On a much bigger scale Britain’s Fairey Aircraft built the Rotodyne , powered by two turboprop engines on the wings and tip jets on the rotor, fed with jet fuel and bleed air from the turbine engines.  Unfortunately, it was noisy – enough so to be rejected by potential customers.  This video from ElectricAviation.com shows the Rotodyne and other similar craft that preceded the current electric Jaunt Journey.  Much has been learned since the cancellation of the Rotodyne project in 1962.

This type of craft is a gyrodyne, a composite of gyrocopter, helicopter, and conventional aircraft.  The technologies and the clever design of the Jaunt overcome several factors that have prevented development of this configuration until now.

Outwardly similar (but much sleeker) to the Kellet and other autogyros of the 1930s, the Jaunt Journey differs in having a powered rotor and high-aspect-ratio wings with two electric motors on each outer section.  These “are sized for 175 mph cruise flight,” and can provide yaw control.

Propellers are smaller diameter to keep tip speeds down and noise to a low level.

The rotor atop the mast hides some significant engineering approaches.  Where a conventional autogiro’s rotor spins about in response to the wind flowing up from under it, Jaunt’s powered rotor slows to maintain a blade speed that matches the speed of the aircraft.  This Reduced Rotor Operating Speed Aircraft, or ROSA, reduces drag and noise while making the Jaunt more efficient.  As Jaunt explains, “The Slowed Rotor technology creates the most efficient vertical take-off and landing aircraft with airplane performance.”

Helicopters have operating limits based on a factor called the advance ratio (μ) equal to the blade tip speed divided by the aircraft speed.  An advancing blade is moving at it rotational speed plus the forward speed of the aircraft, sometimes nearing significant Mach numbers.  A retreating blade can be near its stall speed.  This creates a potentially destructive stress, reduced by slowing the blades and using the wing to provide needed lift.

A helicopter needs to alter the angle of attack of the advancing and retreating rotor blades.  As seen near the end of the video, standard helicopter practice requires an assemblage of small parts needing to work in a coordinated way.  Jaunt reduces this complexity to a simple, but carefully specified, “elastomeric” material that requires far less maintenance.

The rotor tops a mast that can be tilted to always be over the center of gravity of the Journey, no matter how the load is distributed.  This LevelFly™ technology eliminates the need to tilt the fuselage and enables a more comfortable ride.

With a triple-redundant Fly by Wire (FBW) system and conventional controls, the Journey also has double and triple redundancy in power and other systems essential to flight.  All going awry is unlikely with a single-side motor failure, for example – being a 1X10 8 chance, or a possible occurrence in one hundred million flight hours.  A failure of both sides raises that to 1X10 9, or one in a billion flight hours.  Even then, the craft can be flown as a helicopter.

Autorotation and winged flight allow a glide ratio of 10 to 12 to one.  That enables selecting a landing spot within an eight square mile area from an altitude of 1,500 feet, eliminates the need for a ballistic parachute and allows a controlled descent.   Most multi-rotor competitors have a glide ratio of zero, and having a two or three ton vehicle coming down by parachute would still be a crushing experience for those below.

Either taking off or descending, the rotor or the wing can provide an independent means of ensuring flight.  There are no points at which the Journey is not controllable.

Not a New Thing

Jaunt’s Journey is not an untried approach.  It’s a development of the Carter Copter, which first flew in 1998 and the rights to which Jaunt acquired in 2019.  Jaunt was co-founded by Martin Peryea, a senior rotorcraft engineer with Bell Helicopters.  Peryea became CEO of Jaunt in 2020.

Cartercopter and Jaunt have made hundreds of flights and accumulated significant hours of testing and development.  The design seems to inspire confidence, with Loz Blaine writing in NewAtlas.com in 2020, that despite its “weird” hybrid looks, “It’s the safest of all the eVTOL designs we’ve ever seen, and it has another killer advantage in that it requires no special certification.”  Indeed, Jaunt is certifying the Journey under Canada’s part 29 rules, which seem to allow for “weird” configurations.

Jump Starts and Regeneration

A decade ago, Tine Tomazic of Pipistrel described how the Alpha Electro would use a wind-milling propeller during landing to regenerate up to 13 percent of energy from each landing on every approach, “increasing endurance.”   Its 1,800 millimeter (71 inch) propeller allows only that relatively small percentage of energy recovery.

Jaunt, however, has a 15.24-meter (50 feet) diameter rotor with weighted tips.  The momentum these provide enables will work not only at a high level of regeneration, but will enable takeoffs and climbs to 1,500 feet with no power drained from the Journey’s batteries.

This seeming unfeasibility is possible because Jaunt’s landing zones will be equipped with flywheel generators or other high power electrical supplies to spin up the craft’s rotor.  Climbs are thus possible with little loss of stored energy.   The combination of high-inertia rotor blades and ground-supplied takeoff power will save the batteries for longer cruising distances.

Conversely, descents with the large rotor diameter and weighted tips will recharge the flywheel on the ground from the energy generated by autorotation – a high percentage of the total energy created from the descent.  Although not a perpetual motion machine, Journey is a highly-efficient energy recovery machine.

13 years ago, your editor interviewed Dr. Andrew Frank of the University of California at Davis.   He discussed the idea of connecting electric cars and buses to the grid to act as mobile “peaker plants,” offsetting the load on municipal resources.  Jaunt would seem to address that possibility, providing V-to-G (Vehicle-to-Grid) power during high demand or emergency conditions.

This added benefit of electric aviation could make Dr. Frank’s vision a reality.

Simplicity and Manufacturability

With electric power and controls created in association with BAE Systems, reliable flight is a given.  Patented thermoplastic moldings will provide smooth, aerodynamic surfaces with unbroken contours.

As of February, Jaunt had 476 orders worth $1.14 billion from seven customers in six countries.  The company foresees 1,500 orders by 2025 and as many as 15,000 to 28,000 by 2035.

Perhaps operating costs may be a big draw.  Jaunt calculates a Bell 505 helicopter at $1,100 per flight hour, including the cost of $5.00 per gallon avgas, while a Jaunt Journey will cost $606 per flight hour, including battery replacement – a drop of 44 percent compared to the Bell.  Over the long term, per-mile passenger costs could drop from $4.00 to $5.00 per hour to $1.00 to $2.00 per hour considering increased load factors and utilization.

Surprisingly, costs for a Jaunt journey compare more than favorably with even an Uber ride.  A trip from Manhattan to JFK Airport, for instance, in a ground Uber takes 75 minutes and costs $80 per passenger.  It also takes two bridge crossings and a circuitous 19-mile route.  Jaunt can fly a straight line in 20 minutes and cost only $45 per passenger.  It makes even greater economic sense than the same flight by conventional helicopter, which runs $355 per passenger.

Currently, Jaunt is building early versions of the Journey, with wings, tail boom, and empennage nearing completion.  They are being built from aluminum at this point, but this will be replaced with engineered thermoplastics in future iterations.

This combination of performance, operating costs, and safety speak well for the Jaunt Journey.  With test flights coming in 2025 and certification within two years, Jaunt may well be a formidable competitor in the near future.

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Kernel and AIRO to merge- Jaunt Journey eVTOL will be now be developed by PuBCo

Kernel Group Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) announced today that it has entered into a definitive business combination agreement with AIRO Group Holdings, Inc, developer of the Jaunt Journey eVTOL.

According to a company statement:

“The Merger Agreement provides AIRO with a path to becoming a publicly listed company through a new Delaware holding company, AIRO Group, Inc that will acquire both Kernel and AIRO. Upon closing of the merger transaction AIRO and Kernel will be wholly owned subsidiaries of PubCo.

“AIRO is positioned to create a new middle market aerospace and defence sector company operating in four key divisions:

• Advanced Avionics: Highly critical electronic systems used in aircraft. Areas of application include: communications, navigation, monitoring, flight-control system, AI, collision-avoidance systems, radar, and electro-optics
• Electric Air Mobility: Urban transport systems that move passengers or cargo by air in urban/suburban areas. eVTOL (electric vertical take off & landing) aircraft are expected to be used for fixed route flights, on-demand trips, and military operations
• Uncrewed Air System: UAS platforms and services used for civilian/commercial and military applications. Areas of application include: reconnaissance, attack, surveillance, inspection, weather analysis, and healthcare
• Training: Professional and military aviation training for clients within wider A&D sector.”

(Image: Jaunt)

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Jaunt Air Mobility signs deal to bring Journey eVTOL to Mexico 

Jaunt Air Mobility has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent (Lol) with Redwings, a Mexican firm that aims to launch eVTOL air taxi services in Mexico City. 

While the 7,349-foot (2,200 meters) altitude of the Mexican capital has presented a number of challenges for air operators, Jaunt’s Journey eVTOL has a mixed design that combines a rotorcraft with electric engines mounted on the wings that can help overcome them. 

Jaunt’s slowed-rotor compound technology and the redundancy provided by its unique all-electric engine configuration makes it possible for the aircraft to autorotate or glide to the ground in the event of a complete power loss, providing an additional layer of safety. 

“Our Jaunt Journey’s exceptional main rotor technology with low rotor disc loading and tip speeds will provide Redwings with high efficiencies in vertical flight at high altitudes,” said Simon Briceno, Jaunt’s Chief Commercial Officer. 

Jaunt Air Mobility is part of the AIRO Group, which on March 2023 listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange via a SPAC with the Kernel Group Holdings (NASDAQ ticker: KRNLU). 

Jaunt Air Mobility parent company AIRO Group to list via SPAC 

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Jaunt air mobility enters into definitive agreement to join the airo group.

Company brings the next generation of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) and hybrid-electric aircraft to the group's diverse portfolio

Jaunt Air Mobility eVTOL

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) - Jaunt Air Mobility has entered into an agreement to merge with the AIRO Group (US). Jaunt joins a group of six aerospace businesses all engaged in the next generation of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technologies and services. The group offers commercial, military, robotics, manned/unmanned aerial systems and multi-modal aircraft and avionics systems.

Jaunt Air Mobility is the global eVTOL (electric Vertical Takeoff and Land) leader in slowed rotor compound (SRC) technology. Jaunt's patented technology slows the rotor once aloft (the rotor tip speed equaling the aircraft's speed) thereby reducing drag and associated vibration. In combination with a small wing sized for cruise, this produces a lift-to-drag ratio equivalent to a fixed-wing airplane, providing an exceptionally efficient flight with very low noise. Noise that is practically imperceptible in flight. The Jaunt Journey will certify to transport commercial certification requirements, ensuring the highest level of safety.

"AIRO has existing revenue in its current civilian and military operations and has historically reinvested earnings into Independent Research and Development (IRAD). Therefore, additional capital required to produce fully operational eVTOL aircraft is substantially reduced to our advantage compared with our competitors. The current market capitalization of companies in the eVTOL space and urban air mobility platforms are very significant. AIRO additionally delivers diversified services across the UAM/Avionics/eVTOL/Defense marketplace. AIRO is poised to be the leading publicly traded mid-tier aerospace and defense company after the void created by acquisitions in the public marketplace," said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Executive Chairman of AIRO.

"Jaunt is pleased to become part of the AIRO Group. The combined companies address many segments of the advanced aviation market and will pursue a public offering. It is undoubtedly one of the most exciting times in aerospace. The convergence of many new technologies will change the way we move people and packages while reducing the industry's carbon footprint," says Martin Peryea, CEO/CTO, Jaunt Air Mobility.

The AIRO Group aims to be a mid-market leader in a $364B growth sector and is well-positioned for accelerated growth as a public company. The AIRO Group consists of AIRO Drone, Agile Defense, Aspen Avionics, Coastal Defense, Sky-Watch, VRCO, and now Jaunt Air Mobility. The combined strength of these companies offers significant global opportunities as well as operational and financial synergies.

"Together, Jaunt and the other AIRO Group companies offer a transformational, next-generation capability for the aerospace industry that addresses high-growth markets in advanced air mobility as well as leveraging technologies across markets that benefit the general, business, commercial, and the military aviation community. Additionally, we have the resources, experience, and inherent knowledge to help streamline regulatory compliance and certification among all segments," said Joe Burns, CEO, The AIRO Group.

"Jaunt's business commitment remains unchanged along with our relationship to the Canadian government and to our Tier 1 suppliers and customers," says Eric Côté, president of Jaunt Air Mobility Canada.

About The AIRO Group The AIRO Group brings together decades of industry-leading technology with its group companies to provide best-in-class products and services uniquely capable of addressing a wide spectrum of aerospace markets. The AIRO Group leverages technologies that span data systems, resupply package delivery, military aerospace training, military, and commercial manned/unmanned aircraft systems and avionics technologies. Together, these companies represent a transformation of the aerospace industry by providing a diversified offering of capabilities positioned to be the first mid-tier, full-spectrum aerospace company offering end-to-end solutions for the industry. The company can be found at www.theairogroup.com .

About Jaunt Air Mobility Jaunt Air Mobility is a transformative aerospace company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Jaunt is building the best in the next generation of eVTOL (electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) and hybrid-electric aircraft for faster travel over urban areas, moving people and packages. Jaunt is the global leader in patented slow-rotor compound (SRC) technology. The Jaunt Journey is the world's first true aircraft combining a helicopter and fixed-wing airplane. Jaunt offers the safest, quietest, most comfortable, and operationally efficient aircraft with a zero-carbon footprint. The company can be found at www.jauntairmobility.com .

Contacts: Dan Johnson, The AIRO Group, 612-743-9734, [email protected] Nancy Richardson, Jaunt Air Mobility 610-952-2595, [email protected]

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Image 1: Jaunt Air Mobility eVTOL

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com .

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