Honda enters the next-generation mobility "eVTOL" market! "Flying car" development battle, is there a win for Japan, which is late?

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The aircraft under development by Honda is a hybrid type that uses a gas turbine engine and a battery. First of all, the aircraft operated by the pilot started flight tests in the United States in 2023, and started selling in 30 years.After that, it plans to develop a fully autonomous aircraft.

EVTOL (Eevee VTOL / electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft), which is called a flying car and is undergoing fierce development competition for practical use in various countries around the world. [Photo] eVTOL in the world This fall, Honda announced that it is working on development and suddenly attracted attention, but what kind of vehicle is eVTOL in the first place and when will it fly over us? The future market is approaching the possibility of new mobility, which is said to be on the scale of 30 trillion yen! ■ There are two types of eVTOL "There are various types of" flying cars "in one bite. There are flying cars that have tires and can run on the ground and fly in the sky, but now they are the main ones in the world. "EVTOL" is being developed in Japan, "said Masaru Nakano, an advisor (former professor) at the Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University. eVTOL is an abbreviation for "electric Vertical Take Off and Landing", which literally translates to an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. It is generally called a flying car, but it often does not have the function of driving on the road. In Japan, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has set three keywords, "electric, automatic (maneuvering), and vertical takeoff and landing," but it is not clearly defined worldwide. In fact, Honda is developing a hybrid eVTOL that combines a gas turbine engine and a battery, and at this stage, many aircraft are supposed to be piloted. "EVTOL can be broadly divided into a" multicopter type "with multiple propellers like a drone and a" type with fixed wings "like an airplane," explains Mr. Nakano. "The multicopter type cannot fly far, and the speed is about 100 km / h. However, the aircraft is compact and the structure is simple. It is easy to manufacture and I think that it can be purchased for tens of millions of yen per aircraft. If you have a fixed wing, you can fly a long distance at high speed (200-300 km / h). However, since the aircraft is large and complicated, a wide range of knowledge and know-how in aeronautical engineering is required. May go from tens of millions of yen to hundreds of millions of yen. "

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