California-headquartered transportation company Joby Aviation has become the first company to fly an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as part of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign.
NASA’s AAM National Campaign is designed to promote public confidence in emerging aviation markets, such as passenger air taxis, through flight testing in realistic scenarios and data analysis that will inform the development of regulatory standards for emerging aviation platforms.
As part of the two-week test campaign at Joby’s Electric Flight Base near Big Sur, California, NASA and Joby will study the acoustic signature of the Joby eVTOL, which the company intends to operate as part of a commercial passenger service beginning in 2024.
“NASA is proud to continue our relationship with Joby by gathering highly valuable aircraft safety and noise data that will contribute towards an aviation future that includes (AAM operations,” said Davis Hackenberg, NASA AAM mission integration manager.
“Data from industry leaders like Joby is critical for NASA’s research activities and future standardisation of emerging aircraft configurations,” he continued. “Industry partnerships are imperative for the USA to become a leader in the development of a safe and sustainable AAM ecosystem.”
NASA will deploy its mobile acoustics facility and more than 50 pressure ground-plate microphones in a grid array that allows for multi-directional measurement of the aircraft’s sound emissions. Using this data, NASA and Joby will generate noise hemispheres for the aircraft that capture the intensity and the character of the sound emitted in comparison to helicopters, drones, and other aircraft.
These readings, in combination with the noise profile of urban communities, can be used to verify how proposed aircraft operations will blend into the existing background noise.
Once testing is complete, a team of acoustic experts from NASA and Joby will analyse the data before sharing their findings later in the year.
