Back to the future of air travel

02/09/2019 by Kvaser
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Kvaser’s resident pilots, Kent Lenartsson and Bryan Hennessy, paid a visit to AirVenture 2019 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin USA in July. With more than 10,000 aircraft in attendance, the international event plays host to every type of aircraft imaginable, including many homebuilt, vintage and sporting machines.

Kent and Bryan, who arrived in Bryan’s rare triple tail Bellanca, took the opportunity to investigate a new application area for CAN in the shape of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) and electric Short Takeoff and Landing (eSTOL) vehicles. Essentially, eVTOLs are large people-carrying drones, whilst eSTOLs are more alike to a traditional aircraft, requiring a short runway for take off and landing.

BlackFly, Opener’s all-electric VTOL aircraft, was on display (see a test flight in the video to the right, or click here). The US company’s prototype single-seat Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV) is currently going through the certification process with the FAA. BlackFly has eight electric motors, controlled by CAN. Talking to exhibitors, Bryan and Kent found out that most winged eVTOL use CAN for control in their Battery Management Systems and/or motor controls.

Notably, Bryan will be attending The Future of Transportation Conference in Vienna, Austria in December.

If you would like to meet him there, or talk more with him about CAN in eVTOLs, eSTOLs or standard aircraft, contact him directly at [email protected].