Photo: Lift Aircraft
The 2025 Osaka World Expo is gearing up to be a monumental event for AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) with several eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing) ready to show what they can do. Until then, another AAM milestone was recently reached, not by a domestic manufacturer, but by one coming all the way from Austin, Texas.
The image of a bizarre-looking air vehicle that’s neither an airplane nor a helicopter, hovering against the backdrop of a traditional Japanese building (the Osaka castle) seems to belong in a Sci-Fi movie or a videogame. Yet, this is what air mobility is about to look like in the near future.
The aircraft in question is called Hexa, it’s designed by the Austin-based Lift Aircraft, and has actually flown in Japan this week. The endeavor is of historic importance since Hexa was the first of its kind to complete a manned flight in this country. And it’s not a one-time thing, but part of a larger demonstration tour in Japan.
At Osaka, Masatoshi Kumagai of GMO Internet Group was the one who completed the historic flight. The GMO Internet Group is one of the partners in this AAM project, together with Marubeni Corporation and Lift Aircraft.
The best part is that, according to Lift, Kumagai took off inside the Hexa eVTOL after just one hour of training and getting to know the aircraft. In the U.S., Hexa doesn’t require a pilot’s license or aircraft type certification to be operated. In Japan, there’s no regulation similar to the American FAA Part 103 (which is what Hexa conforms to), so Lift needed to get the green light from the local Japanese authorities.
JCAB (Japan Civil Aviation Bureau) authorized the flight demonstration campaign, and has also attended this pioneering test flight in Osaka.
Similar to the Jetson One and a few others, Hexa is meant to be more like a personal electric aircraft than an air taxi. Its main features include a distributed electric propulsion system with 18 motors, and an ultra-light airframe (which makes it compliant with FAA’s Powered Ultralight Classification, that doesn’t require pilot licensing for flying).
A triply-redundant autopilot computer (connected to a single, three-axis joystick) makes this eVTOL supposedly easy to fly. It’s also one of the few eVTOLs with amphibious capabilities. Fitted with five floats, it can land just as safely on ground or water.
This Osaka demonstration (which included three flight patterns) is the first step toward future commercial services in Japan. Meanwhile, Lift Aircraft will also show off its contraption in Niihama and Imabari. And don’t worry, Hexa won’t be available only in Japan. It’s also gearing up for take-off in New York, this year. Charm Aviation will add 100 Lift Aircraft eVTOLs to its fleet, for different kinds of aerial tour flights in the City.
The aircraft in question is called Hexa, it’s designed by the Austin-based Lift Aircraft, and has actually flown in Japan this week. The endeavor is of historic importance since Hexa was the first of its kind to complete a manned flight in this country. And it’s not a one-time thing, but part of a larger demonstration tour in Japan.
At Osaka, Masatoshi Kumagai of GMO Internet Group was the one who completed the historic flight. The GMO Internet Group is one of the partners in this AAM project, together with Marubeni Corporation and Lift Aircraft.
The best part is that, according to Lift, Kumagai took off inside the Hexa eVTOL after just one hour of training and getting to know the aircraft. In the U.S., Hexa doesn’t require a pilot’s license or aircraft type certification to be operated. In Japan, there’s no regulation similar to the American FAA Part 103 (which is what Hexa conforms to), so Lift needed to get the green light from the local Japanese authorities.
JCAB (Japan Civil Aviation Bureau) authorized the flight demonstration campaign, and has also attended this pioneering test flight in Osaka.
Similar to the Jetson One and a few others, Hexa is meant to be more like a personal electric aircraft than an air taxi. Its main features include a distributed electric propulsion system with 18 motors, and an ultra-light airframe (which makes it compliant with FAA’s Powered Ultralight Classification, that doesn’t require pilot licensing for flying).
A triply-redundant autopilot computer (connected to a single, three-axis joystick) makes this eVTOL supposedly easy to fly. It’s also one of the few eVTOLs with amphibious capabilities. Fitted with five floats, it can land just as safely on ground or water.
This Osaka demonstration (which included three flight patterns) is the first step toward future commercial services in Japan. Meanwhile, Lift Aircraft will also show off its contraption in Niihama and Imabari. And don’t worry, Hexa won’t be available only in Japan. It’s also gearing up for take-off in New York, this year. Charm Aviation will add 100 Lift Aircraft eVTOLs to its fleet, for different kinds of aerial tour flights in the City.
Google News