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Volume 01 |
Issue 37 |
March 8, 2021
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Autonomous Cars vs. eVTOLs, Volansi and COVID-19 Relief Bill
Welcome back to the Future of Aerospace, where each week we dive into a few of the trends rapidly defining the next generation of aircraft and aerial markets.
SpaceX successfully launched another 60 Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center early Thursday. This is the 20th batch of satellites that SpaceX has put into orbit since the project began and the 5th successful launch since the beginning of the year. More on that here.
The U.S. Space Force is developing a strategy to reduce the classification of information on military space systems to aid deterrence of potential adversaries and better integration of such systems with those of U.S. allies and industry partners, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John “Jay” Raymond said on March 3.
THIS WEEK: More electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft companies are moving closer to certification and deployment and experts in the industry are looking to autonomous cars to predict the future of this emerging technology. During a March 2 Revolution.Aero town hall, industry experts discussed what lessons eVTOLs can learn from autonomous cars and how their roll-out might be different.
(AI & Autonomy)
While the U.S. Air Force awarded Concord, Calif.-based drone maker, Volansi a contract last December to participate in the service’s prototype effort for the Skyborg low-cost attritable demonstrator–a project worth up to $400 million, company CEO Hannan Parvizian and former Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper, a new member of Volansi’s board, said that Roper’s expertise will benefit the company in forming a strategy on which military missions to pursue and delivering approved military drone technologies to the civilian world, not in opening doors to the military market. (Electrification and Sustainability)
On March 6, the U.S. Senate passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion bill that includes a combined $17 billion in coronavirus-related relief funding for U.S.-based airlines and aviation original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), if it becomes law. (COVID-19 Impact)
Thanks for reading.
— The Future of Aerospace Team
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| What Can eVTOLs Learn from Autonomous Cars? |
Image: Waymo
More electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft companies are moving closer to certification and deployment and experts in the industry are looking to autonomous cars to predict the future of this emerging technology. During a March 2 Revolution.Aero town hall, industry experts discussed what lessons eVTOLs can learn from autonomous cars and how their roll-out might be different.
Key Autonomous Car Insights for eVTOLs:
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- One shared aspect between the development of autonomous vehicles and eVTOLs is their predicted development timelines. “Anyone who's covered the autonomous vehicle industry is completely jaded by three-year timelines because I would have said the same thing about the Google team that became Waymo,” Patrick McGee, San Francisco correspondent for the Financial Times, said.
- McGee: “They basically founded the whole modern self-driving movement in 2009. [They had] lots of experience, they already had a prototype that you could drive around in, and they had someone like John Krafcik come in from Hyundai and say, look we bought a working prototype now we're going to scale. We'll get 10s of 1,000s of units in a few years. Basically, everybody thought it was plausible. It hasn't happened at all.”
- The different environments in which self-driving cars and autonomous aircraft operate will also affect how these two emerging technologies are integrated, David Merril, co-founder and CEO of Elroy Air, said. “I think the hard part about self-driving cars is that it's a very crowded environment with other cars and pedestrians everywhere and a lot of ambiguity. So there's a lot of edge cases that autonomous cars need to be able to handle gracefully that go beyond the kind of complexity that you'd find in the air in the kind of constrained structured environment.”
- Autonomous ground vehicles have run into a lot of technical issues that have held them back, McGee said. Where eVTOLs differ is that they have already demonstrated some of the advanced technology with drones. “The future for autonomy on the road I can be quite cynical about, I must say. In the air, I'm much more optimistic, but I think the problem is less about technology. I think unmanned drones have already demonstrated technology. It's more public optics.”
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| Volansi and Roper Pledge to Use Roper’s Ideas on Commercial/Military Integration, Not His Access |
Image: Volansi
While the U.S. Air Force awarded Concord, Calif.-based drone maker, Volansi a contract last December to participate in the service’s prototype effort for the Skyborg low-cost attritable demonstrator–a project worth up to $400 million, company CEO Hannan Parvizian and former Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper, a new member of Volansi’s board, said that Roper’s expertise will benefit the company in forming a strategy on which military missions to pursue and delivering approved military drone technologies to the civilian world, not in opening doors to the military market.
More on Roper's New Position with Volansi:
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- Volansi announced Roper was to join its board on March 3. The press release carried a sub-headline reading, “Former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force brings deep expertise in unlocking defense spending in R&D and emerging technologies to venture-backed companies.
- Walter Shaub, a former director of OGE and a senior ethics fellow at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), said that the announcement’s wording raises questions.
- “The word ‘unlocking’ made me think, ‘Yikes,’ because it creates the impression that he [Roper] is going to leverage his insider knowledge to help them have a competitive advantage,” Shaub said. “That’s the specific reason Congress passed the [1988] Procurement Integrity Act because of very specific concerns about procurement officials offering an unfair advantage that could distort market competition. The spirit of the law is intended to keep everything above board. The press announcement jumped out as something that suggests they’re touting, ‘Oh, look. We have a competitive advantage now.’ That’s concerning.”
- In response to a question about the wording of the sub-headline, Volansi said in an email that “having Dr. Roper on Volansi’s Board does not give the company any inherent advantage in receiving a government contract.”
- “Dr. Roper cannot engage the government on Volansi’s behalf,” the company said in the emailed statement. “However, he brings over a decade of expertise applying new technologies – especially commercial ones – to the military’s toughest challenges. This will significantly help Volansi prioritize which military missions to pursue and how these missions might accelerate commercial opportunities. He additionally uniquely understands challenges commercial companies face in navigating government procurement, which will help our Board smartly navigate commercial and defense markets.”
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| Pandemic Relief Plan Includes Billions for US Airlines and Aviation OEMs |
Image: Spirit Aerosystems
On March 6, the U.S. Senate passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a $1.9 trillion bill that includes a combined $17 billion in coronavirus-related relief funding for U.S.-based airlines and aviation original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), if it becomes law.
How can the new COVID-19 relief package help U.S. airlines and aerospace manufacturerers?
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- Under the bill's Payroll Support Program (PSP), commercial and charter air carriers receive $14 billion, with another $1 billion for qualifying contractors.
- Also included in the relief package is the Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Act, with $3 billion for companies that manufacture aircraft, engines, propellers as well as Part 145 maintenance, repair, and overhaul repair stations who "involuntarily furloughed or laid off at least 10 percent of its workforce in 2020 as compared to 2019 or has experienced at least a 15 percent decline in 2020 revenues as compared to 2019," according to the new law.
- Initially introduced by U.S. Reps Rick Larsen and Ron Estes, the Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Act establishes a temporary relief program to provide a 50 percent cost-share to help cover costs of pay, benefits, and training for aerospace manufacturing employees.
- Relief for the commercial side of the aviation manufacturing supply chain would come at a crucial time, as companies across all tiers of the supply chain experienced significant losses in revenue last year and are considering more furloughs and employee reductions in over the next few years.
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Airport infrastructure projects receive $8 billion in funding from the new legislation, with $100 million of that amount designated to general aviation airports.
Read the full story here.
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