First, helicopter manufacturer Bell confirmed that the Nexus air taxi concept vehicle it revealed last year wasn’t merely vaporware. On Monday at CES, the company unveiled mockups of a smaller, nimbler fully electric model, the Nexus 4EX, based on the lessons learned from the response to the earlier model. Bell further staked its claim in future aeromobility, announcing a proposed smart city ecosystem that would help distribute the services of air taxis and drones and manage their operation, whereabouts, and maintenance.

Meanwhile, South Korean carmaker Hyundai—an industrial giant well versed in the kinds of high-volume manufacturing a viable air taxi industry will require—also revealed designs for both a craft and a support system for future air taxi operations. Its four-passenger S-A1 aircraft, developed in collaboration with Uber Elevate, uses eight rotors: four that tilt for vertical and horizontal flight and four that are fixed in the horizontal position to boost downward airflow while hovering. The company says its electric PAV (personal air vehicle) concept will work with a new ground-based infrastructure system that will include an air taxi station called a Hub and a network of electric PBVs—Purpose Built Vehicles—that will shuttle people to and from the air taxis.

Hyundai’s partnership with Uber, announced formally at CES, will facilitate the carmaker’s transition to aircraft manufacturing, says Nikhil Goel, Uber’s head of product in its aviation efforts. He cites Uber’s NASA-inspired approach that validates vehicle design concepts and then releases them publicly so they can be adapted by other manufacturers. The craft has features, including counterrotating blades that minimize noise and tilting rotors that improve efficiency, that match Uber’s envisioned approach to air taxis. “Their new conceptual design fits our requirements because it’s based on how we envision an ideal design,” Goel says.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.wired.com