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Thermal control system
Diesel aviation engine
V E R D E G O A E R O I R O N B I R D This ground-based, operational test bed demonstrates the diesel hybrid electric concept. More than just a generator set, the Iron Bird includes a simulator-driven control station that enables real-time, hardware-in-the-loop testing of realistic mission profiles and use-case scenarios for a variety of vehicles and mission types.
Turbo charger
development, and these will be operated on the higher traffic routes where passengers can be aggregated for regularly scheduled flights. In order for the UAM market to grow rapidly and to a significant size, passenger pricing must be cost-competitive with premium surface transportation options. Black car services typically cost $100 to $150 for longer trips in congested urban areas and can be priced at $4 to $7 per passenger mile, according to major metropolitan area data from Uber and Lyft. This is orders of magnitude higher than the seat-mile cost benchmarks most people are familiar with for conventional commercial airline flights. It is important to benchmark surface transportation and not commercial aviation when understanding the economics of UAM. In this context, it is feasible to develop competitive aircraft that offer competitive cost and significantly higher speeds for premium travel markets such as business travel between high-traffic urban hubs, and between these densely populated locations and international airports.
While a $100 journey is infeasible for most daily commuters, the Global Business Travel Association has found there are hundreds of millions of busy business travelers projected to spend more than $1.6 trillion annually on travel, and who are already expensing local surface trips with a similar cost per mile, while traveling far slower than is possible with an aerial option. Initial market pricing is likely to start significantly above surface transportation options, but as the UAM market grows and the in-service fleet of aircraft increases, the supply of aerial service will grow to meet demand. Once supply and demand are balanced, it is important that the aircraft are designed to support competitive pricing with premium surface transportation in order to ensure the market grows sufficiently large to be worth the investment in the development and certification of new aircraft. As the market continues to mature, and as aircraft designs become increasingly more economical, UAM may grow beyond the premium travel market, but this requires advances in economics that are unlikely to be available in the first or second generation of UAM aircraft.
VerdeGo Aero is focusing on the production of electric power that enables missions using distributed propulsion pods. A new style of propulsion will enable urban air mobility. Both vehicles may seat two to four passengers, plus the pilot.
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