By: Levi Shama

A leading Israeli aviation company, Urban Aeronautics (UA) is making the futuristic ideal of flying vehicles a reality and are poised to revolutionize urban mobility.

Urban Aeronautics, a leading aerospace company revolutionizing the future of urban mobility, is designing and developing car-sized aircraft that will provide safe and rapid transport via seamless city integration.

The Israel-based pioneer in next-generation vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles is using its groundbreaking internal rotor Fancraft™ technology to help bring the dream of air mobility to everyone and everywhere.

Fancraft™ makes it possible to design the only safe, reliable, quiet, and sustainable VTOL that has no wings or exposed rotors and is able to fly and land where other vehicles cannot go.

Designed to existing FAA requirements, Fancraft™ utilizes powerful ducted fans, resulting in superior control, stability, speed, safety, and noise reduction. Following more than 300 test flights, the technology has clearly demonstrated the potential to fly in crowded terrain including urban, wooded, and mountainous areas where it is difficult for rotary helicopters and other aircraft to safely operate.

Urban Aeronautics develops manned vehicles primarily for commercial air taxi and air rescue roles. Its flagship CityHawk is a five-seat lightweight twin-engine eVTOL, with a uniquely compact footprint optimized for urban transportation or emergency response.

The CityHawk will utilize jet propulsion, with cabins that are approximately 20 to 30 percent larger and much quieter than comparable helicopters. Future eVTOL models will run on hydrogen, the only 100 percent environmentally friendly power source.

Urban Aeronautics recently announced an agreement with urban air mobility service Ascent to bring its aircraft to market, and a memorandum of understanding with Hatzolah Air to develop, produce, and market the CityHawk for emergency medical service (EMS) applications. Other partners include Boeing, Adama, Safran, and HyPoint. “One of Hatzolah’s most important goals is be somewhere within minutes”, Explains Eliezer Gross, the CEO of Besadno Group who have partnered with UA and facilitated the connection between Hatzolair and UA. 

“Unlike helicopters, we can land anywhere within minutes. We fit like a glove in their vision of being minutes away to improving the care of trauma incidents. It can take 45 minutes to an hour to get a patient to a hospital during rush hour in a city such as New York. Unlike a car or ambulance, CityHawks can fly over traffic, land in an area the size of a large parking spot, and airlift patients to a hospital within minutes”. Under a memorandum of understanding signed on August 19, Hatzolair, which is a U.S.-based EMS operator, will help Israel-based Urban Aeronautics to develop, produce, and market the CityHawk in the emergency response market. According to Hatzolair president Eli Rowe, there is a potential market for 800 of the EMS versions of the aircraft.

The company is led by veterans of IAI, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing, including some of the most experienced engineers in the industry. CEO Nimrod Golan-Yanay served for 25 years in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Founder and President Dr. Rafi Yoeli was previously a group leader at IAI and senior engineer at Boeing.

The company is now starting the full scale development of the City Hawk with four units planned to complete FAA certification flights within 5 years.

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