Germany pioneering Personal eco friendly helicopters

Personal helicopters could transform commuting

An artist's impression of the cockpit of a personal helicopter system of the future. © Gareth Padfield, Flight Stability and Control

Commuters could be lifted out of the noise and pollution of Europe’s overcrowded cities thanks to a group of researchers who are laying down the groundwork for the development of a personal helicopter system as an alternative to land-based travel.

It's one of a handful of radical ideas for improving Europe's congested cities that also includes hydrogen-powered postal delivery vehicles and electric boats riding on a cushion of air.

Emissions-saving hybrid electric cars are becoming increasingly popular, and the fuel efficiency of standard cars improved by 22 % during the period 1995-2009, according to data supplied by the European Petroleum Industry Association. On top of that, hydrogen-powered buses whose only emission is water vapour are now being tested on Europe's roads as part of the Clean Hydrogen in European Cities project.The EU has committed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 20 % below 1990 levels for 2020, and road transport currently contributes around a fifth of Europe's total emissions of carbon dioxide.

However, the World Health Organization forecasts that by 2050 seven out of 10 people will live in a city, meaning Europe needs to find more innovative ways of cutting down on pollution and congestion.

Car-like vehicles that can fly

'Now we have cars everywhere, it does not make sense to build more roads, because we cannot even maintain all the current roads, and in many places there is no room left anymore ... So why not use the third dimension, and make car-like vehicles that are able to fly?’Professor Heinrich H. Bülthoff, of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany.

‘Now we have cars everywhere, it does not make sense to build more roads, because we cannot even maintain all the current roads and in many places there is no room left anymore,’ said Professor Heinrich H. Bülthoff of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. ‘So why not use the third dimension, and make car-like vehicles that are able to fly?’

He is scientific coordinator of the myCopter project, an EU-funded consortium which is preparing the ground for small aerial vehicles to be used as personal transport. It has six partners, including DLR, Germany’s national space and aeronautics research centre, which will provide its flight simulation facilities to test the systems developed.

MyCopter will not itself build personal vertical-lift aircraft, but is studying what systems and technologies are needed for them to become a reality.

As well as the technical issues of developing a small vertical take-off commuter vehicle with a range of 50-100 km, researchers are also considering factors such as noise, safety, and economy. The social acceptability of automated or near-automated vehicles flying overhead is an important issue, Prof. Bülthoff said.

MyCopter aims to keep down the costs, but personal helicopter-type vehicles are likely to be used by ‘early adopters’ initially, rather than immediately being a mass form of transport.

‘We think when you take everything into account – how much energy you waste in traffic and not being able to follow a direct route – even with current technology you come into the range of a middle-class car in terms of fuel consumption. Hopefully with electric motors or helicopter-like systems, we could be environmentally more friendly,’ Prof. Bülthoff said.