The aviation industry is determined to implement the same trend in itself, while it is nearing the era of completely electric and driverless cars. In 2018, Airbus plans to offer its first electric air subsystem, while Boeing announced that it will acquire Aurora Flight Sciences, which develops non-pilot aircraft.
Boeing buys Aurora Flight Sciences
Boeing, has announced that it will buy Aurora Flight Sciences, taking a more serious step in terms of autonomous flight. Aurora Flight Sciences is a technology company that is already developing autonomous aircraft. Aurora, DARPA and USAF are also working on LightningStrike XV-24A Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) XPlane.
According to the statements made, Boeing will allow Aurora to go independently on its own route when the purchase is completed. Aurora is a company with 20 years of experience and has already flown up to 30 pilot-free automobiles. Vehicles from Aurora’s production band will be used by Boeing on both the commercial field and the military field.
It is of course important that Boeing and Airbus increase their investments in these two areas. But how much it will increase the market share of aviation companies is difficult to answer. It can be expected that these companies will be able to handle intercity transportation as well as city transportation. On the other hand, land transport technologies such as the speed boom (hyperloop) or Elon Musk’s Tesla make a different claim about transportation. Let’s see who will offer a more efficient and economical proposal.
In March 2016, Aurora Flight Sciences had beaten Boeing (and Lockheed Martin) by winning nearly $90 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the federal agency devoted to the development of military technology for development of a drone capable of flying at high speeds. The proposed Aurora project – the VTOL X-Plane – is driven by a hybrid engine and is also able to make vertical landings and landings and then fly like an airplane.
Another aviation giant, Airbus plans to launch the CityAirbus aircraft, which have vertical launch and landing capability, next year. It is stated that the vehicles that will work in certain routes will travel 80 mph (128 km/h) per hour and carry 4 people. These new vehicles, which are expected to speed up transportation especially in the busy areas of the city, will fly as test in the first stage but as you will guess the next target, these vehicles can also fly without pilots/autonomously.
