The mockup of Bell’s (Booth No. N1816C) Nexus concept urban air mobility vehicle (UAM) is making its NBAA debut this year. Bell unveiled the design in January and has formed “Team Nexus”—a development team of seasoned industry OEMs including Safran (engines/hybrid propulsion), Electric Power Systems (battery and battery management), Garmin (autonomous vehicle management computer systems), Thales (flight control systems and avionics), and Moog (flight control actuation systems). Bell is also partnering with Japan’s Sumitomo to provide a variety of related services, including air taxi. Bell hopes to have a product to market by the mid-2020s, said Chad Stecker, program manager for the Nexus. Stecker declined to offer additional specifics with regard to the program’s timeline.
As currently envisioned, the Nexus features a 4 +1 cockpit/cabin layout, a central wing, integrated landing skids, and a modified V-tail topped by a short horizontal stabilizer. The +1 in the cabin layout is designed for the pilot. While it is likely early UAM vehicles such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft will be required to have a pilot on board, a growing number of industry executives believe that fully-autonomous vehicles will be required in order to drive down operating costs to the point where they can appeal to a mass market. Earlier this year, Scott Drennan, Bell vice president of engineering innovation, told an industry conference, “I want it to be [full] autonomy right away, and I think the technology is there to do that.” Drennan cited the need for 10,000 additional vehicle pilots just for UAM’s early-stage deployment and how the addition of those pilots would inflate direct operating costs.
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