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Podcast: Talking eVTOLs with Vertical’s Rotor Radio

By eVTOL

Wednesday November 18, 2020

With billions of dollars in investment flowing into the space driven largely by a Jetsons-like vision of air taxis flying above congested city roads, the eVTOL sector has drawn a lot of skepticism from knowledgeable aviation enthusiasts who know how difficult it is to certify a new aircraft, let alone overhaul the airspace system and safely remove the human pilot from an aircraft.

Rotor Radio by Vertical Magazine
eVTOL.com managing editor Brian Garrett-Glaser joined Rotor Radio to talk about reality and hype behind the eVTOL movement.

Brian Garrett-Glaser, our managing editor, recently joined Vertical Magazine‘s Rotor Radio podcast to discuss the hype and reality behind eVTOLs with host Dan Parsons, editor of Vertical Valor, including likely initial applications of these aircraft and some of the innovative activities that will benefit the rest of aviation regardless of the success of eVTOLs.

Copterspotting: The many, many helicopters that inhabit Washington, D.C.'s skies – Rotor Radio from Vertical Magazine

Washington, D.C., is covered by some of the most restricted airspace in the world, but that doesn't prevent dozens of government agencies, the military, police, hospitals and other operators from flying helicopters over the U.S. capital. On any given morning, D.C.-area residents running, biking or walking their dogs along the Potomac River are treated to (or tormented by, depending on one's point of view) to helicopters flying the route into and out of the city.On the 10th episode of Rotor Radio, Andrew Logan, founder of the Twitter handle @HelicoptersofDC, joins us to discuss all that chopper traffic and the data-gathering game he's developed to keep track of it all. He's now got more than 8,600 rotorcraft-rapt followers. Dozens of D.C.-area residents, many of them stuck gazing out of their home windows for months on end, regularly participate in "copterspotting." They spot Air Force UH-1s, Department of Energy Bell 412s, Presidential VH-3Ds and other models. Using their phones, they snap photos or take video, then upload to Twitter using the hashtag #copterspotter and the helicopter emoji, then tag a geographical location. It's a game, citizen journalism and a crowd-sourced data gathering effort all in one. Logan has plans to plug the data into an algorithm that could eventually ID helicopter models automatically, but for now it's all good fun.
  1. Copterspotting: The many, many helicopters that inhabit Washington, D.C.'s skies
  2. What's next for eVTOL: Hype, hysteria, and still room for helicopters
  3. Pandemic Pilot Training – It Can Be Done, Safely!
  4. A V-280 Experimental Test Pilot Answers Your Questions
  5. Learning the Lakota: Airbus' Brian Diaz discusses the U.S. Army's UH-72

Listen to the episode above, or search for Rotor Radio on your preferred podcasting app.

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