Hyundai Motor Company this week unveiled its Personal Air Vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company calls the PAV—an autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle—the centerpiece of its urban air mobility vision for smart city transportation. Hyundai and Uber tapped specialty design-engineer-build firm Aria Group to bring the one-of-a-kind, carbon-fiber-intensive prototype aircraft from concept to reality.
In creating the Hyundai PAV, Irvine, California-based Aria engineered and built the craft’s moving horizontal control surfaces, sequenced lift rotors, articulating vertical-to-horizontal thrust rotors and vehicle lighting. The company also created complex carbon fiber structures and tooling and the complete assembly and shipping strategy, the show-stand concept and a complete electronic control system that cycles the aircraft through a complex demonstration of rotor movements and articulations to simulate the vehicle in flight.
Clive Hawkins, president of Aria Group said, “Uber Elevate is leveraging its data and technology expertise and assembling all of the right people from aerospace and other industries, as well as federal, state and local government, to create the biggest innovation in transportation since cars took over from horses.”
