Air Taxis & IP Exploring the future of flying cars by looking at patent data The concept of flying cars isn’t new, but are we getting closer to them being a reality? Looking at the patenting activity and what has been happening in this technology space, we pinpoint some key drivers, influencers and major players making the idea a reality. Air Taxis Elon Musk suggested that “flying cars” will never happen, or While the race to develop flying cars has started shouldn’t. However, the research and investments in this to gain momentum in recent years, the concept technology area show there is genuine interest in making has been around for decades. One of the earliest them happen. For example, Germany-based start-up Lilium attempts at a flying car was by Glenn Curtiss who recently secured a $90m (£69m) investment from, among built the Curtiss Autoplane, a roadable aircraft (Figure others, Chinese tech giant Tencent and Atomico. They are 1.) in 1917, detailed in his patent US1294413A, far from the only active players in this technology space. that never achieved full flight. Several subsequent We had the opportunity to hear from Volocoptor’s CIO Alex attempts were made during the last century to bring Zosel and Lilium investor Yann de Vries of Atomico at Tech flying cars and autonomous aircrafts to the market, Crunch Disrupt Berlin in December, 2017. Zosel sees his but recent developments have paved the way for technology being applied within the next two to three years personal air transport to become a technological and de Vries sees Lilium reaching the market within the reality. next ten years. Flying cars, roadable aircrafts, VTOLs (vertical take-off and landing) and personal air vehicles, are a few of the synonyms for air taxis. Air taxis are now being developed to provide short-haul flights, for example, a 19km journey from Manhattan to JFK airport could last as little as five minutes in a Lilium jet, or as an on-demand form of door- to-door transportation. Figure 1. A sketch of the Curtiss Autoplane from Glenn Curtiss’ patent US1294413A 1 Reasons why air taxis are an attractive idea Convenience and ease of congestion Currently, traffic congestion is a major problem in most to check in for a flight, instead of dealing with airport urban areas and air travel requires planning and time parking and shuttles. The idea is that air taxis would wasted at airports. For commuters in busy cities, air taxis operate much like the Uber or Lyft app, an individual would ease traffic and reduce daily commute times. For would be able to request an air taxi to pick them up from air travel, imagine the convenience of being able to travel a location at their chosen time, and drop them off directly with your luggage from your home to your local airport at, or close to, their chosen destination. The rate of innovation may be aided by government mandates to reduce emissions and improve safety Advancements in technology have helped to dismantle themselves perfectly for air taxis. Electric power rather barriers to market feasibility for air taxis. Examples include than conventional fuel-powered flying cars is particularly software, materials, sensors, and battery technology. Air important because the proposed air taxi infrastructure taxis need to be lightweight and composite materials such will be integrated into urban cities, and for the network as carbon fiber help to reduce the weight of the vehicle, to be viable, noise and emissions must be kept to a thus allowing for the addition of more batteries or payload. minimum. The development of distributed electric propulsion in the aircraft industry has improved the thrust efficiency and Additionally, government initiatives are helping to make reduced emissions. these technologies a potential commercial reality. For example, Britain has declared a ban on all diesel and Battery technology has rapidly advanced and significant petrol cars and vans from 2040. Dubai has outlined a research is funded to further the emergence and adoption self-driving strategy that aims to carry out “ 25% of its of electric cars and autonomous vehicles. Advancements passenger transportation with the help of autonomous in technology for autonomous and electric vehicles lend means of transport.” Infrastructure costs While there is scepticism, the costs associated with Air taxis, in particular, those that have vertical take- building the infrastructure for an air taxi network may be off and landing capabilities, don’t require runways. As more cost-efficient than building infrastructure for ground this recent white paper from UberElevate highlights, transportation. Without having to build and maintain existing infrastructures can be exploited for air taxi use. roads and the peripheral structures to support them, the UberElevate proposes “Vertiports” that have charging infrastructure required for air taxis costs far less than that facilities, hubs, and pads for take-off and landing that for ground transportation. could be developed from existing unused land, tops of parking garages or existing helipads (Figure 2.). Figure 2. Uber landing pad 2 Intellectual property activity in air taxi space Patent filing timeline for air taxi technology We learn about the future of air taxies by understanding significant rise in patents filed between 2014 and 2015. the patents filed and by whom. Figure 3 below shows the During this period, we see a number of smaller players number of currently “live” patents filed each year since such as Zunum Aero, Joby Aviation, and XTI Aircraft, 1997. The shaded region shows a drop in the number enter the space and file patents, driven perhaps by the of patents filed, though this is merely a result of patent developments in electric propulsion for aircrafts. applications that have not yet been published. There is a 250 200 150 100 Number of patents filed 50 0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Year Granted Pending Figure 3. A patent filing timeline showing the number of live patents filed per year since 1997. Lapsed patents have been removed. Patents by region Top 5 jurisdictions by number We can also look at where these patents are being filed. Figure 4 shows that the largest of patent filings number of filings are being made in the US. China follows closely behind, however nearly 600 half of these are utility models. Europe, 500 Pending Japan, and Russia are also granting a 400 Granted number of patents in this area. Companies 300 Utility Model such as Toyota, Sikorsky Aircraft, and Honeywell International have all filed patents 200 in various technologies in Japan. 100 0 US CN EP JP RU Figure 4. The top five jurisdictions for patent filings 3 What are the key features for air taxis The design of air taxis varies between manufacturers Vehicles have also been designed to allow for vertical but there are common features. Most have been initially take-off and landing using tiltable electric engines designed for pilot controlled use but some envisage that allow the engines to be rotated depending on the that these aircrafts will be autonomous, thus reducing flight mode. Several different designs for propulsion the costs associated with training and employing technologies have been used, for example Urban pilots. Boeing recently acquired Aurora Flight Sciences Aeronautic’s CityHawk uses ducted fans, while the Corporation which will allow them to leverage Aurora’s Volocopter has a design with 18 rotors (Figure 5.). In expertise in autonomous systems, electric propulsion terms of safety, these hybrid vehicles have both airbags and advanced flight control. Both Boeing and Airbus and parachutes for protection on the road and in the air. have introduced fly-by-wire systems into commercial aircrafts, incorporating this system in air taxis will further reduce their weight and enhance safety through system redundancy. Figure 5. Volocopter 2X electric VTOL design with 18 rotors 4 Technology areas dominating air taxi technology Patent analysis allows us to identify the 41% Propulstion systems technology areas that are dominating this space (Figure 6). Technology related 18% Control Systems to propulsion methods or systems lead with more than double the number of 15% Aircraft design patents relating to control systems and the design of the aircraft. Fewer 7% Wing design patents exist on landing platforms or landing systems for aircrafts, and wing 6% Engine design. These areas may present new opportunities for players to enter this 6% Landing platform/aircraft system space or maybe there is less opportunity to innovate here? 4% Lighter-than-air design/system 3% Airflow Figure 6. Technology Breakdown Propulsion and rotor showing to be the vital technology Companies Rotor Duct Propeller Fans Lift fans Propeller Tiltrotor Thrust Grand fans and rotor vector Total Sikorsky Aircraft 42 1 43 Urban Aeronautics 2 29 3 34 Eurocopter 13 8 8 29 Boeing 12 4 4 1 1 22 Zee Aero 13 7 20 IHI 9 3 8 20 Airbus 17 2 19 Israelarospace Industries 12 6 18 SOO Cheoljung 14 14 Bell Helicopter 6 7 13 Joby Aviation 13 13 Durov Dmitrij Sergeevich 8 4 1 13 Grand Total 138 42 32 12 11 9 7 7 258 Figure 7. A heat map of patent activity for propulsion technologies by top companies Efficient propulsion technology determines the practicality of these flying vehicles and Figure 7 shows the number of patents filed by the top companies in this area. Rotor design dominates this space with roughly three times as many patent filings as any other technology. Sikorsky Aircraft currently leads the way with their coaxial counter-rotating rotor technology. Ducted fan technology (Figure 8), is proposed by Urban Aeronautics, and Metro Skyways Ltd., its subsidiary has patented their Fancraft™ technology (e.g.