Japan’s eVTOLs Add Lift

By Tim Hornyak

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — By 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will be living in cities, up from 55% in 2018, according to the United Nations. Can existing streets, highways, bridges and other infrastructure cope with the influx of vehicles to move hundreds of millions more people through urban areas?

Proponents of personal air vehicles–also known as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft–are betting that mass transit will have to skyward to meet the expected demand. Indeed, Morgan Stanley expects the urban air mobility market to be worth US$1 trillion by 2040.

With its expertise in aircraft parts manufacturing and robotics, Japan is aiming for a slice of the global eVTOL pie, eyeing early demand in servicing rural areas, tourism, and disaster relief.

While Japanese companies have long experience in industrial drones, they were latecomers to the consumer drone market, which was quickly dominated by China’s DJI.

eVTOLs present an opportunity for Japan to catch up to international players, and domestic developers are taking various approaches in order to make that happen.

A.L.I. Technologies

Tokyo-based eVTOL startup A.L.I. Technologies has been turning heads in Japan with its slick, sci-fi-styled hybrid-electric hoverbike. The size of a small car, the XTurismo Limited Edition will apparently be able to carry a single rider up to eighty kilometers per hour. While promo videos using computer graphics depict the bike sailing through canyons, it’s unclear how high it can fly.

The company has demonstrated the XTurismo at venues including Fuji Speedway, where a rider made it hover a few meters off the ground while turning in slow circles and generating a loud chainsaw-like sound. That demo was in October, when A.L.I. announced it was accepting orders for the XTurismo, priced at ¥77.7 million (US$680,000).

“Compared to other air mobility systems, this one is more compact and can levitate on the spot, so it doesn’t require a large space,” says A.L.I. Technologies spokesperson Mizuki Nakamura.

The bike has two large and four small rotors between its front and rear. It’s powered by an internal combustion engine by Kawasaki Motors and also has a battery system that allows it to fly up to forty minutes when fully charged.

Other features include edge computing and motion control units to ensure safe navigation in autopilot mode as well as cloud connectivity. The XTurismo cannot exactly match a Kawasaki Ninja for acceleration—it takes three seconds to climb only two meters—but, taking a page from the Tesla playbook, the company is hoping its futuristic cachet and exclusivity will grab well-heeled buyers before wider sales.

“The XTurismo was developed in a limited edition of two hundred units, designed to be enjoyed by individuals on private property, after which it will be electrified for mass production with a little more cost effectiveness,” says Nakamura.

Tetra Aviation

Tetra Aviation is another startup in Japan’s capital which is building eVTOLs. Set up in 2018, Tetra’s main platform is the Mk-5, a single-seater winged craft propelled by 32 rotors for vertical thrust and one propeller for horizontal thrust, giving it lift and cruise capability. The wings allow the craft to glide, part of a redundant safety system. Its batteries can provide speeds up to 161 kilometers an hour and a range of 161 kilometers. The company is accepting orders for the vehicle.

Tetra grabbed the spotlight at the 2020 GoFly Prize Fly Off, an event sponsored by Boeing that’s designed to advance innovation in flight.

After the competition at Moffett Federal Airfield at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, Tetra engineers walked away with a US$100,000 Pratt & Whitney Disruptor Award for its Mk-3 eVTOL, a prototype racing aircraft where the pilot sits astride the fuselage between rotors set up in an unusual banked position. They accomplished that just over two years after conceptualizing the craft.

“What makes us stand out is our fast development speed,” says Tetra CEO Tasuku Nakai, a graduate of the University of Tokyo’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “We have received over two hundred inquiries, and the next step is to exceed the expectations of our customers who have already purchased our products.”

SkyDrive

Rival Tokyo startup SkyDrive, founded by ex-Toyota Motor engineers in 2018, has a slightly different take on single-seater eVTOLs. It calls its SD-03 prototype a “flying car” that couldenable “door-to-door air travel on a daily basis.”

The SD-03 is an all-electric aircraft with a cockpit-style frame and a maximumspeed of 40-50 kilometers per hour. Its eight rotors can power flight for 5-10 minutes when batteries are fully charged.

“SkyDrive is trying to develop an extremely light and compact aircraft that can take-off and land almost anywhere,” says spokesperson Risa Oishi. “Our aircraft requires no runway and we envision a future where parking lots of convenience stores and helipads on top of buildings will become takeoff and landing sites.”

SkyDrive is backed by a host of corporate sponsors including major Japanese brands Sony, Panasonic, and NEC.

The Japanese government, which aims to implement guidelines for flying car testing by 2023, gave SkyDrive a vote of confidence in October when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) accepted the company’s application for a type certificate for its SD-05 prototype, the first of its kind for a flying car in Japan. The certificate is issued for newly developed aircraft that meet regulatory requirements.

“This is a big step for our company, as it’s a declaration that the MLIT and SkyDrive will work together on our development plan for type certification,” says Oishi. “We are going to conduct some flight tests around 2024 in the Osaka area and aim to start business with SD-05 in 2025 at the Osaka-Kansai Expo.”

Honda

Another shot in the arm for Japanese eVTOLs came in September, when Honda Motor confirmed its intentions to build a platform.

The world No. 5 automaker by revenue has sold more than 170 of its HondaJet light aircraft, and sees eVTOLs as vehicles for shorter-haul transit. The Honda eVTOL has yet to be built, but the concept is a gas turbine-electric hybrid winged craft with eight rotors and two propellers.

Promotional videos depict the craft being about the size of a small bus, with Artificial Intelligence systems that pilot the craft and recognize passengers when they approach. Adopting the gas turbine hybrid power unit would give the aircraft enough range to ferry people between cities, and Honda envisions its eVTOL being at the core of a network of autonomous vehicles that can shuttle people around regionally.

“Other companies’ eVTOLs can travel up to a hundred kilometers, but by using a gas turbine hybrid, it’s possible to achieve intercity travel up to four hundred kilometers. That will be the biggest feature,” says Honda spokesperson Junko Nakanishi.

“In terms of the electrification technology, there are places where the battery of the four-wheel hybrid system and the technology of the F1 turbocharger (Motor Generator Unit-Heat, or MGU-H) are used. We also believe that HondaJet’s knowledge can be put to good use in obtaining certification for practical use.”

Honda hopes to do a technology demonstration of its eVTOL in 2023 and fly a craft in 2025. It’s considering commercialization after 2030, starting in North America.

Tim Hornyak is a Tokyo-based author and journalist covering Japanese technology, business, and culture.

This article first appeared in our subscription Japan Air Mobility newsletter on December 20, 2021.

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