Transformative Vertical Flight Initiative
VFS Electric VTOL Lead: Dr. Anubhav Datta, University of Maryland
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The 7th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium SOLD OUT!
Plan now for our 8th Annual event in Jan. 2021 in Mesa, Arizona!
Prior Events:
- 1st Workshop (Aug. 2014): Presentations | summary article | event page
- 2nd Workshop (Aug. 2015): Presentations and video | summary article | event page | proceedings
- VFS Forum 72 (May 2016): Transformative Vertical Flight Special Session
- 3rd Workshop (Sept. 2016): Presentations | summary article | event page (part of SAE's Aerotech 2016)
- VFS Forum 73 (May 2017): Transformative Urban Air Mobility Special Session
- 4th workshop (June 2017): Presentations and video (part of AIAA's AVIATION 2017)
- 5th workshop (Jan 2018): Presentations and videos | summary article | event page
- VFS Forum 74 (May 2018): Transformative Urban Air Mobility Special Session
- 6th symposium (Jan 2019): Presentations | videos | summary article | event page
- VFS Forum 75 (May 2019): Transformative Urban Air Mobility Special Session
- 7th symposium (Jan 2020): Presentations | videos | summary article | event page
TVF Workshops and Working Groups
Since 2014, the Vertical Flight Society began been leading a series of workshops with NASA (and initially with AIAA and SAE) on Transformative Vertical Flight (TVF), and built a community of aerospace professionals that includes technical, regulatory, and business elements, and exploring the potential for new forms of air transportation systems with innovative propulsion systems. The focus has been on systems that embody combinations of on-demand, electric and hybrid-electric propulsion, and vertiport-capable configurations and designs.
The third workshop in 2016 built on the work of the previous two by soliciting expert opinions from the participants on the work and timeframes needed to transform air transportation consistent with the TVF vision. These inputs served as a starting point for the development of an advocacy roadmap needed to generate support for TVF transportation systems, technology, and markets. The TVF roadmap was continued to be advanced, but required further refinement and vetting before it will be a credible advocacy tool. To accomplish this, small focused TVF Working Group were establish. A TVF Roadmap Working Groups website was created to enable volunteers to join and contribute in their areas of expertise. This web portal also provided a means for TVF Working Group members to access tools like virtual meeting spaces, information sharing sites, and rosters of TVF Working Group leads and members.
Transformative Vertical Flight Working Groups:
- Personal/Private Vehicles (Short Range)
- Commercial Intra-city (Short Range) — Report: Status of eVTOL Technology (Jan 2018)
- Commercial Inter-city (Longer Range)
- Public Services