“Flying Cars” to Transport Army Troops
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The U.S. Air Force has been racing to acquire “flying cars” — electric vertical take-off and landing, or eVTOL, platforms — that can carry troops and equipment. The systems are also referred to as “orbs,” advanced air mobility or urban air mobility. The move is part of the Air Force’s Agility Prime initiative.
Most of the designs include tiltrotor or thrust vector control that would enable the platforms to take-off and land vertically like a helicopter but fly more like an airplane. The new orbs differ from the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft that Air Force Special Operations Command and the Marine Corps currently use.
The systems would be different than airplanes or automobiles, which require runways or roadways that could be destroyed by enemy fire or might not be available where U.S military forces are operating. They would not be like today’s drones because they would carry people, nor would they be like helicopters because they won’t be “big, loud and expensive to build”.
Key attributes of advanced air mobility vehicles would include: electric/hybrid propulsion and electric power source; manned, remote or autonomous operational capability; vertical take-off and landing; and commercial off-the-shelf. All would hover on rotors, but some may also have wings, according to Col. Nathan Diller, Agility Prime team lead.
Their electric propulsion and smaller size could make them quieter and harder to detect. Search-and-rescue missions are one scenario where the technology would be helpful because legacy assets are more vulnerable, officials say.
The vehicles may be much easier to fly than legacy aircraft, which means more troops would be capable of operating them and require less training. In some cases, pilots might not be needed at all as vendors develop autonomous systems.
Such an aircraft would also be useful for special operations missions where low observability is critical. Other potential missions for advanced air mobility vehicles besides troop transport include: humanitarian assistance and disaster relief; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and cargo transport, according to nationaldefensemagazine.org.
