EXCLUSIVE: Gilmore Group sheds light on designing future of eVTOL aircraft, addressing passenger and pilot concerns

Gilmore Group has car­ried out a series of research sur­veys, shed­ding light on the nascent eVTOL indus­try. Found­ed in 2003, Gilmore is a brand, design, tech­nol­o­gy, and media firm spe­cial­is­ing in the finan­cial retail, trans­porta­tion and dig­i­tal brand­ing with a grow­ing pres­ence in the eVTOL indus­try.

A recent sur­vey is enti­tled: “Design­ing the Future of eVTOL: Address­ing Pas­sen­ger & Pilot Con­cerns and Enhanc­ing User Expe­ri­ence.” This comes on-the-back-of last week’s Paris Air Show.

The report cov­ers crit­i­cal con­cerns voiced by both mass-mar­ket con­sumers (rep­re­sent­ing poten­tial eVTOL pas­sen­gers) and pilots with­in the avi­a­tion indus­try. These issues pre­dom­i­nant­ly revolve around cab­in and flight-deck which influ­ences the fuse­lage design, empha­sis­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of design­ing the over­all in-flight expe­ri­ence from the start.

The report states, “Tak­ing inspi­ra­tion from the vision­ary Bill Lear, who cham­pi­oned the idea of design­ing from the inside out, it becomes clear that suc­cess hinges on under­stand­ing the needs of those onboard.” One point Gilmore rais­es, is the “evolv­ing phys­i­cal dimen­sions of pas­sen­gers.”

The cur­rent FAA reg­u­la­tions employ 170 lb male test dum­mies, yet the aver­age weight of an Amer­i­can male aged 20+, has increased clos­er to 200 lbs, accord­ing to the Cen­tres for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC)*. Addi­tion­al­ly, “peo­ple of size,” both male and female, should not be ignored. The report con­tin­ues, “This prompts impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tions such as spa­tial manoeu­vra­bil­i­ty (head­room), socio-ped­al per­son­al space, and the need for ergonom­ic and adjustable fea­tures.”

Seat­ing ori­en­ta­tion also emerges as a focal point, as pas­sen­gers val­ue pri­va­cy and are con­cerned about fac­ing one anoth­er. This has also been report­ed by var­i­ous eVTOL com­pa­nies like Wisk Aero refer­ring to the seat­ing area as a “sanc­tu­ary space”.

Mean­while, the absence of flight atten­dants onboard rais­es con­cerns among pas­sen­gers and expe­ri­enced pilots alike. The report con­tin­ues, “Pilots, who must take on the added role and respon­si­bil­i­ties of flight atten­dants, believe they will have increased stress and fatigue. Not to men­tion the lim­it­ed space for pas­sen­gers’ bag­gage and car­ry-ons, as well as over­all weight lim­i­ta­tions, which fur­ther exac­er­bates these chal­lenges.”

Win­dows are anoth­er issue.

“While big win­dows in eVTOL air­craft offer panoram­ic views,” con­tin­ues the report, “they also pose chal­lenges in terms of envi­ron­men­tal tem­per­a­ture con­trol. The expan­sive glass sur­faces allow solar heat to pen­e­trate the cab­in, poten­tial­ly lead­ing to uncom­fort­able heat lev­els.”

It goes on, “Con­verse­ly, the prox­im­i­ty to wide win­dow open­ings can result in the dis­com­fort of cold elbows, par­tic­u­lar­ly in chill­i­er climes. It is cru­cial to con­sid­er that not all eVTOL air­craft are intend­ed sole­ly for VIP or tour­ing pur­pos­es. In Gilmore’s mass mar­ket sur­veys, the com­pa­ny dis­cov­ered that the issue of being too cold emerged as a clear con­cern among poten­tial pas­sen­gers.”

Size also mat­ters.

The report explains, “eVTOL air­craft are gen­er­al­ly small­er than com­mer­cial air­craft, boast wide­ly dif­fer­ent fuselage/cabin shapes and sizes, and fea­ture a greater num­ber of motors and pro­pellers. Addi­tion­al­ly, the issue acces­si­bil­i­ty for dis­abled per­sons and con­trolled egress in land­ing areas remains large­ly unad­dressed, call­ing for solu­tions that pri­ori­tise inclu­siv­i­ty and oper­a­tional safe­ty.”

As the eVTOL indus­try advances rapid­ly, it is imper­a­tive for design­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers to heed these insights:-

: Both anthro­po­met­ric and psy­cho­log­i­cal human-fac­tor con­sid­er­a­tions must be incor­po­rat­ed.

: By work­ing with pilots and by address­ing pas­sen­ger con­cerns such as seat­ing ori­en­ta­tion, safe­ty sys­tems, bag­gage space, and acces­si­bil­i­ty, the indus­try can cre­ate an in-flight expe­ri­ence that ensures com­fort and safe­ty.

: By embrac­ing holis­tic human-cen­tric design prin­ci­ples, eVTOL air­craft will pave the way for a new era of effi­cient, inclu­sive, and enjoy­able air trans­porta­tion.

The report con­cludes:-

“It is cru­cial to recog­nise that eVTOL air­craft should not be thought of as fly­ing cars. By refram­ing the nar­ra­tive sur­round­ing Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM), we can bet­ter appre­ci­ate their dis­tinct design and reg­u­la­to­ry chal­lenges as well as focus on the com­plete cus­tomer jour­ney and user expe­ri­ence.”

As com­mu­ni­ty accep­tance plays a piv­otal role in the eco­nom­ic via­bil­i­ty and suc­cess of eVTOL enter­pris­es, the “rotor noise issue” and being “whis­per qui­et” is one of the keys, but is not the only one. Solv­ing “the broad­er slate of human fac­tor chal­lenges” are crit­i­cal to suc­cess.

A full Gilmore report will be avail­able at a lat­er date.

*Nation­al Health and Nutri­tion Exam­i­na­tion Sur­vey (NHANES) con­duct­ed by the Cen­tres for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) in the Unit­ed States, the aver­age weight of adult males aged 20 years and old­er was approx­i­mate­ly 198.8 pounds (90.2 kilo­grams) in 2017–2018.

Gilmore Group recog­nis­es the mul­ti­fac­eted chal­lenges that eVTOL design­ers and engi­neers face in cre­at­ing the best human expe­ri­ence for eVTOL flight. We are com­mit­ted to sup­ply­ing inno­v­a­tive solu­tions that address the diverse aspects of pas­sen­ger com­fort, safe­ty, con­ve­nience, and com­mu­ni­ty accep­tance. By col­lab­o­rat­ing with indus­try part­ners and using our exper­tise in human-cen­tric design, we aim to con­tribute to the devel­op­ment of eVTOL air­craft that exceed expec­ta­tions and ele­vate the future of AAM.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.gilmoregroup.com

(Top image: Gilmore)