Brazillian electric aircraft startup Eve Air Mobility proudly announced on May 15 that its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle has successfully completed the necessary wind tunnel testing.
The critical testing occurred at a wind tunnel close to Lucerne, Switzerland. According to the press release, the tested eVTol was a scale model due to arrive in 2026.
What is wind tunnel testing?
Wind tunnel testing is apparently a crucial engineering mechanism for aircraft development.
Engineers monitor the air’s flow over and around the eVTOL along with its individual components.
Apart from that, the test can also gauge the aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the aircraft. It enables the engineers to assess the aircraft’s performance, efficiency, lift, and flying qualities.
Therefore, the test primarily aims to “investigate and validate how components including fuselage, rotors, wing, tail and other surfaces would perform in flight,” per the press release.
“The completion of wind tunnel testing is an important engineering milestone as we continue the development of our eVTOL.
The information we obtained during this phase of development has helped us further refine the technical solutions of our eVTOL before committing to production tooling and conforming prototypes. Our goal is to design, produce and certify an aerodynamic and efficient eVTOL that will be used for a variety of urban air mobility missions.”
Eve Air Mobility CTO Luiz Valentini
In essence, Eve’s engineering team will utilize the collected data from the wind tunnel testing to further improve the eVTOL’s control laws.
See Also:
- eVTOLS could decide future of urban air mobility
- United Airlines invests $15 Million in electric aircraft startup Eve Air Mobility
- Fully electric air taxi achieves New York test flight
- China approved first eVTOL flight for XPeng AeroHT’s X2
- VW China launches “Flying Tiger” eVTOL Passenger Drone
Eve aims to finish the main equipment suppliers selection in H1 2023. It expects to start producing the first full-scale prototype model in H2 2023. Meanwhile, the company plans to undergo further testing in 2024, Reuters noted.
After all that, they aim to launch the eVTOL for commercial operations in 2026.
