TILTWING CJI REPORT
Planning the future – at full tilt
High speed tiltwing aircraft are not new – NASA first flew one in the 1960s. But interest in this novel aircraft across civilian and military markets today has maybe never been higher. Words: Yves Le Marquand
LINKING CITY pairs such as Manhattan and Boston in 32 minutes at a one-way ticket price of about $283 sounds too good to be true. But that’s the promise on offer from one tiltwing aircraft developer based in Boston.
Tiltwings feature a wing that rotates up for vertical take-off and landing and pivots horizontally for forward flight. To understand their potential in civil markets, we need to start with the US Air Force’s decade-long failure to win war games and its response was to launch a design competition – the high-speed vertical takeoff and landing (HSVTOL) challenge in 2021. “Every year for the past 10 years we’ve war gamed against near-peer adversaries, and lost,” said lieutenant colonel Luke Bever when introducing the challenge. “The problem is, they take out the runways in the first five minutes. This last year we modelled a runway-independent air force – and we won. High speed VTOL is now a top DoD [Department of Defense] priority.”
The way the USAF has engaged enemies for decades is less and less effective. Rotary wings are too slow to be the only aircraft which take off vertically, and fixed wings are too runway dependent to be the only high-speed aircraft the USAF can rely on. That’s why high-speed VTOLs even as big as a Lockheed C130 Hercules aircraft are being considered by the DoD as it adapts how the military works.
The HSVTOL Challenge received more than 200 ideas and concepts which it has whittled down to five. One of those left is a Boston-based startup known as Transcend Air. Spun out alongside Sabrewing Aircraft from predecessor Elytron Aircraft, the firm boasts partners including GE, Kaman, IAI North America, Lily Helipads and Verdego Aero.
As with so many of the VTOLs being developed, especially in the US, Transcend’s aircraft, known as Vy 421, has a use case crossover between civil and defence. The company envisions commercial operations that surpass anything on offer today either flying or in development to enter service before 2030, and still cheaper than the next best alternative. Transcend plans to offer regional city-to-city pairs such as Manhattan to Boston in 32 minutes for a ticket price of $283 one way – which is cheaper than taking an Uber to Boston’s main airport, taking the shuttle to La Guardia in New York and getting another Uber to Manhattan. It is also one hour door-to-door versus four. Initial regions selected for commercial operations include the US, India, the Middle East and Malaysia. Europe is not on the list because intercity commuter business travel is already well served by rail.
The above numbers sound impressive. The sceptic in me thinks they almost sound too good to be true, but Transcend’s chief operating officer and co-founder Peter Schmidt has experience in this field. Of the few precedents for AAM operations, the very light jet trend of the mid-to-late 00s has to be one of them, and Schmidt was at the heart of it. More about this later.
“I have to harp on about this because usually small aircraft businesses are luxury businesses that end up costing more. Regarding the eVTOLs that most are familiar with, some are trying to say: ‘People will pay $150 to fly to the airport.’ No, they won’t,” says Schmidt. “We have a stand up cabin, we have closed cockpit for two pilot operations, we have a lavatory, galley and still we have six VIP seats. I’ve spent time in the bizjet space, this is what luxury customers want.”
Planning the future – at full tilt
High speed tiltwing aircraft are not new – NASA first flew one in the 1960s. But interest in this novel aircraft across civilian and military markets today has maybe never been higher. Words: Yves Le Marquand
LINKING CITY pairs such as Manhattan and Boston in 32 minutes at a one-way ticket price of about $283 sounds too good to be true. But that’s the promise on offer from one tiltwing aircraft developer based in Boston.
Tiltwings feature a wing that rotates up for vertical take-off and landing and pivots horizontally for forward flight. To understand their potential in civil markets, we need to start with the US Air Force’s decade-long failure to win war games and its response was to launch a design competition – the high-speed vertical takeoff and landing (HSVTOL) challenge in 2021. “Every year for the past 10 years we’ve war gamed against near-peer adversaries, and lost,” said lieutenant colonel Luke Bever when introducing the challenge. “The problem is, they take out the runways in the first five minutes. This last year we modelled a runway-independent air force – and we won. High speed VTOL is now a top DoD [Department of Defense] priority.”
The way the USAF has engaged enemies for decades is less and less effective. Rotary wings are too slow to be the only aircraft which take off vertically, and fixed wings are too runway dependent to be the only high-speed aircraft the USAF can rely on. That’s why high-speed VTOLs even as big as a Lockheed C130 Hercules aircraft are being considered by the DoD as it adapts how the military works.
The HSVTOL Challenge received more than 200 ideas and concepts which it has whittled down to five. One of those left is a Boston-based startup known as Transcend Air. Spun out alongside Sabrewing Aircraft from predecessor Elytron Aircraft, the firm boasts partners including GE, Kaman, IAI North America, Lily Helipads and Verdego Aero.
As with so many of the VTOLs being developed, especially in the US, Transcend’s aircraft, known as Vy 421, has a use case crossover between civil and defence. The company envisions commercial operations that surpass anything on offer today either flying or in development to enter service before 2030, and still cheaper than the next best alternative. Transcend plans to offer regional city-to-city pairs such as Manhattan to Boston in 32 minutes for a ticket price of $283 one way – which is cheaper than taking an Uber to Boston’s main airport, taking the shuttle to La Guardia in New York and getting another Uber to Manhattan. It is also one hour door-to-door versus four. Initial regions selected for commercial operations include the US, India, the Middle East and Malaysia. Europe is not on the list because intercity commuter business travel is already well served by rail.
The above numbers sound impressive. The sceptic in me thinks they almost sound too good to be true, but Transcend’s chief operating officer and co-founder Peter Schmidt has experience in this field. Of the few precedents for AAM operations, the very light jet trend of the mid-to-late 00s has to be one of them, and Schmidt was at the heart of it. More about this later.
“I have to harp on about this because usually small aircraft businesses are luxury businesses that end up costing more. Regarding the eVTOLs that most are familiar with, some are trying to say: ‘People will pay $150 to fly to the airport.’ No, they won’t,” says Schmidt. “We have a stand up cabin, we have closed cockpit for two pilot operations, we have a lavatory, galley and still we have six VIP seats. I’ve spent time in the bizjet space, this is what luxury customers want.”
TILTWING CJI REPORT
Aircraft design
The aircraft itself is reminiscent of Leonardo’s AgustaWestland AW609 tiltrotor. Military tiltrotors include the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, which is in service with various armed forces, and the Bell V-280 Valor. The V-280 is under development for the United States Army’s Future Vertical Lift programme.
It is crucial to note that Transcend’s Vy 421 is a tiltwing not a tiltrotor. Schmidt told me if a AW609 could perform the missions they envision then he would buy them instead. According to an in-house capability comparison the Vy 421 comes out on top in all areas compared. Why is the Vy 421 the better option? Schimdt puts it down to simplicity of the design which has been tested over the course of 19 prototypes (the first 13 were built by Elytron) and five competitive DoD contracts.
The Leonardo 609 features technology nearing 40 years in age, its rotor hub features hundreds of components and it is a tiltrotor. These are inherently more complex than tiltwings, according to Schmidt, the Vy 421 has tens of components in the propellor hub, he says. Tiltrotors are so complicated even if the whole Bell V22 Osprey fleet was not grounded because of December’s crash off Japan, only two thirds would ever be able to fly at any one time.
“The tiltwing design at this point enabled by computerised fly-by-wire flight controls just results in a vastly superior aircraft,” says Schmidt. According to him faster time to market is what makes the DoD so interested in Transcend’s design, and that is down to its simplicity. The firm is not reinventing the wheel. Every component that will be used to build the Vy 421 can be bought off the shelf, and it will certify under FAA Part 21.17(b) with a mixture of fixed-wing, rotary-wing and powered-lift rules. “It makes us faster to develop, and also cheaper to make. There is nothing in this aircraft that hasn’t flown before in other aircraft [apart from their patented fuselage, but even that is made from aerospace grade material flying today]. That is unique to us out of everyone that is developing a VTOL. It is because we don’t want to take unnecessary risks and we don’t have to do so,” says Schmidt.
Landing in cities
Transcend’s concept of operations involves city-to-city operations, and that means city centres but the team does not believe in landing on rooftops. The aircraft will land on floating vertiports, known in-house as VyPorts, built by connecting construction barges together and powered by solar panels. “We have designed the aircraft and infrastructure in tandem,” says Schmidt. “We are using barge-based vertiports which will float on rivers. Most major cities that we want to serve around the world were developed on waterways using water-based transportation. The barges are 40ft x 10ft, we attach two together and then build systems into them including fuel bladders and fire suppression.” All infrastructure is being built in partnership with Lily Helipads, which has developed technology for green vertiports such as a porous helipad surface which absorbs any grey water or fuel spillage.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a big factor in the development of almost every aircraft nowadays. The two GE helicopter engines that will power Transcend’s aircraft aren’t the most sustainable propulsion systems , but they are highly efficient and ensure range in excess of three times that of an eVTOL. Plus, a deal with Prometheus to supply e-fuels for Transcend’s operations would see the firm achieve net zero carbon emissions too. “E-fuels are what we are really betting on for max decarbonisation. Prometheus’ numbers suggest that they can deliver e-fuel to us at a price point competitive with fossil,” says Schmidt. However even with a doubling in the cost of fuel, tickets would not increase by more than $12, he adds.
Going down the fossil fuel route doesn’t mean that Transcend has not explored the all-electric pathway – 18 of its 19 prototypes have been battery-powered. Schmidt is also the chairman of the Electric Flight Test Committee and meets with the certification teams from leading eVTOL OEMs, as well as EASA and the FAA on a weekly basis. “We have gone our own way because you can’t do our mission electrically. We will fly three times farther, three times faster.”
Tiltwings contain tens of parts in the rotor hub, versus tiltrotors which contain hundreds. Simplicity is key, says Schmidt.
Strategic raise
You might be thinking: ‘I’ve not heard of Transcend Air until now’. The firm has raised $16m to date but often found itself in the shadow of the hype surrounding its electric counterparts. But that is beginning to change Schmidt tells us, and the firm will be looking to raising more capital this year. The plan is to team up with a strategic partner that can bring its capital and expertise to the table. Far from venture money betting on 10 ideas hoping one will come through, Schmidt says: “We want to set up a joint venture which will be chartered to build the full-scale prototype. We show up with intellectual property and expertise, our partner shows up with cash and expertise, we build the full-scale and we give them the rights to the military market for it.”
Air taxi experience
As noted earlier, Schmidt already has years of experience running an air taxi company. Coming in towards the end of the very light jet boom in the late 2000s, he oversaw the operations of the last non-bankrupt founding member of the Air Taxi Association, Linear Air. “This gave me an insight on how people think about and purchase travel, and it is not intuitive,” he explains. “It took me five years of failing to grow the business. At the end of the day it is actually super simple.
“Transportation is a capital-intensive business and if you’re not generating revenue with your capital assets they are costing you money. With an aircraft to make money you have to fill all the seats and you can’t have empty legs. So, what you need is a high density of demand on the routes you want to serve and you want that demand to be symmetrical – that is the hard part.”
Travel demand tends to be pretty symmetrical, apart from business travel between cities and religious pilgrimage. “City-to-city is the only way we can fly enough missions per day and still offer the ticket prices we do whilst making a great profit,” concludes Schmidt. “It is a unique business niche, but it is a big niche at $20bn in the US alone.”
