PRESS RELEASE: FAIRFAX, Va. (PRWEB) January 07, 2019
The Vertical Flight Society, the world’s leading non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, salutes the unveiling of the Bell Nexus hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft today at CES 2019, the world's largest consumer technology show.
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The Vertical Flight Society, the world’s leading non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, salutes the unveiling of the Bell Nexus hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft today at CES 2019, the world's largest consumer technology show.
“The unveiling of the Bell Nexus concept highlights that the ‘Electric VTOL Revolution’ is gaining momentum,” said Mike Hirschberg, VFS Executive Director.
Since Bell flew its first helicopter in 1943, the company has delivered more than 35,000 helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft. Bell is now combining their deep understanding of vertical flight technology with hybrid-electric power to create a disruptive new VTOL air taxi for everyday use.
The Vertical Flight Society has been strongly supporting the development of electric VTOL aircraft since initial flights were made in 2011. Since then, innovators both within and outside the aerospace industry have seized the opportunity to leverage advances in electric motors, batteries, hybrid-systems, control systems, low cost manufacturing and autonomy that have been developed by the automotive, aerospace and consumer unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, aka “drones”) industries. These technologies have revolutionized the creative design space for VTOL innovators, resulting in an incredible breadth and depth of new electric and hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft configurations that don’t resemble the helicopters that have dominated vertical flight for the past 75 years.
The Bell Nexus builds on the company’s rich heritage, including its experience developing and producing (with Boeing) the world’s only operational tiltrotor VTOL aircraft, the V-22 Osprey.
VFS is the global non-profit society for engineers, scientists and others working to advance vertical flight. For 75 years, the Society has led technology, safety, advocacy and other important initiatives, and has been the primary forum for interchange of information on vertical flight technology.
VFS was founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943 by the pioneers of the helicopter industry, who believed that technological cooperation and collaboration was essential to advance vertical flight. Today, history is repeating itself with the Society playing a similar role in helping to advance today’s Electric VTOL Revolution.
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