eVTOLs and Pilot Training – The Impact of Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircrafts to Pilot Training
Voipio, Lasse (2022)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022120225965
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022120225965
Tiivistelmä
The aviation industry is in the midst of a remarkable transformation and the industry is evolving faster than ever. The increasing demands on reducing aviation emissions and the desire to introduce safe and sustainable aviation to urban areas have been the fuel for new aviation innovations. One of the major innovations has been the electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOL. The eVTOLs are the crux in urban air mobility, a concept of an affordable, safe, and sustainable urban aviation transportation system that uses automated aircrafts to transport passengers and cargo within and between urban areas. For urban air mobility to be a reality, it will require hundreds or thousands eVTOLs flying operating simultaneously in an urban area, an infrastructure of vertiports where the aircraft can land and takeoff from as well as a maintenance service network and pilots, lots, and lots of pilots to operate the eVTOLs.
The initial pilot need for eVTOLs is estimated to be around 100 000 pilots. The need for eVTOL pilots is so huge that training pilots from scratch would take so much time that it would push the adaptation of eVTOLs far into the future. The first eVTOL pilots will be people with existing pilot licenses but since the need for conventional aircraft pilots is not showing signs of declining, it means that there needs to be a unique track for people to be trained specifically for eVTOLs. This will put pressure on the aviation authorities to expedite the creation and implementation of a regulatory infrastructure as well as for the pilot training organizations to create and develop eVTOL pilot training programs.
The impact of eVTOLs to pilot training can be seen as minor or major depending on what level of the training industry is being examined. The impact, or lack thereof, will depend on the eVTOLs successfully entering the aviation infrastructure. Since eVTOL technology was not developed to satisfy an existing market demand, any incident could cease the production and development of the devices for the foreseeable future. If the eVTOLs receive public acceptance and the technology is widely adopted the impact of eVTOLs to pilot trainingcan be significant. If the eVTOLs never get off the ground, then it will be just another fad that did not have any effect at all.
The initial pilot need for eVTOLs is estimated to be around 100 000 pilots. The need for eVTOL pilots is so huge that training pilots from scratch would take so much time that it would push the adaptation of eVTOLs far into the future. The first eVTOL pilots will be people with existing pilot licenses but since the need for conventional aircraft pilots is not showing signs of declining, it means that there needs to be a unique track for people to be trained specifically for eVTOLs. This will put pressure on the aviation authorities to expedite the creation and implementation of a regulatory infrastructure as well as for the pilot training organizations to create and develop eVTOL pilot training programs.
The impact of eVTOLs to pilot training can be seen as minor or major depending on what level of the training industry is being examined. The impact, or lack thereof, will depend on the eVTOLs successfully entering the aviation infrastructure. Since eVTOL technology was not developed to satisfy an existing market demand, any incident could cease the production and development of the devices for the foreseeable future. If the eVTOLs receive public acceptance and the technology is widely adopted the impact of eVTOLs to pilot trainingcan be significant. If the eVTOLs never get off the ground, then it will be just another fad that did not have any effect at all.