Hyundai’s Supernal announces production tech plans at the Paris Air Show.
Flying taxis are one of the most widely anticipated technologies in aviation, but it’s a very difficult problem to solve. Safety, cost, range and environmental considerations have delayed development by decades, but a new generation of e-VTOLs, combined with advanced engineering tools and materials, suggests that this may be changing.
At the 2023 Paris Air Show, one of the companies developing this technology, Supernal, announced partnerships designed to develop the aircraft and the technology to mass produce the aircraft concurrently.
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Episode Transcript:
In the aerospace industry, there is nothing bigger than the Paris Air Show, alternating with Farnborough in the U.K. This is where the world’s heavy-hitters meet, and where truly huge deals are announced.
This year, two major Indian commercial carriers are the talk of the industry, with Air India finalizing orders for 470 airliners from both Airbus and Boeing, and their rival IndiGo revealing a record-setting 500-jet order for Airbus narrow-body airframes. The list price for the Air India jets is approximately $70 billion, but significant discounts are standard in this industry, and final figures won’t be known immediately.
Big airplanes, and big deals to buy them, are big news in Paris—but quietly, important things are happening in aerospace, particularly in small VTOL flight.
An example is Supernal, Hyundai’s air mobility business, which is developing electric passenger carrying air taxis. The flying car concept has been around for decades, propelled largely by backyard tinkerers and energetic startups, but serious interest from major players has been a technological and financial headwind for the sector.
That’s no longer the case, with major air-framers and automotive companies now backstopping development efforts, spurred by higher performance electric motors and practical batteries.
In Paris, Supernal announced two agreements which are noteworthy: one with GKN Aerospace for design and build of major structures and wiring, and one with Qarbon Aerospace for composite structures. Supernal expects to fly a prototype in 2024.
The difference between companies like Supernal and the traditional start-up air taxi culture is that the company is lining up manufacturing partners with mass production capability well in advance of first flight of the prototype. This greatly increases the probability of program success, allowing operators to place orders with greater confidence of on-time delivery and of performance meeting specifications.
The combination of advanced simulation, advanced composite layup technology and new generations of software that simplifies avionics removes the major barrier between small air-framers and big orders: risk.
They say you’ve arrived when you take a stand at the Paris or Farnborough airshows, and while Supernal is hardly a household name, it is an example of the way new engineering technology allows small companies to do the things that big companies do, on time and on budget.
