Browntown

It looks like they are piloted aircraft, so who's gonna fly these things? Are UPS pilots scope protected to a single pilot aircraft? Can the company create a subsidiary and operate them? Or are they going to let the Ameriflight's and Alpine Air's of the 135 world operate them?
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/bi...lectric-planes

whalesurfer

...we are ‘safe’ but it look like slowly but surely the future is heading our way...


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UPS agrees to buy electric vertical aircraft to speed up package delivery in small markets

KEY POINTS

• United Parcel Service announced it has agreed to purchase of 10 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from Beta Technologies.
• The package delivery giant will test the eVTOLs for use in its Express Air delivery network, focusing on small and medium markets.
• “You can see a future where it’s carrying, let’s say 1,000 pounds, 1,500 pounds to rural hospitals,” and landing on a helipad instead of an airport, UPS’ Bala Ganesh said.

United Parcel Service is taking package delivery to new heights, literally, with the purchase of 10 electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft from Beta Technologies.

In an announcement Wednesday, Atlanta-based UPS said it will test the eVTOLs for use in its Express Air delivery network, focusing on small and medium markets. The company will operate the eVTOLs under its Flight Forward division, which is also exploring drone delivery.

The new type of aircraft, which looks like a cross between a plane and a helicopter, “unlocks new business models that don’t exist today,” Bala Ganesh, vice president of the UPS Advanced Technology Group, told CNBC. “For example, you can see a future where it’s carrying, let’s say 1,000 pounds, 1,500 pounds to rural hospitals,” and landing on a helipad instead of an airport.

Vermont-based Beta Technologies will design and build the eVTOLs, which are set to be delivered to UPS in 2024, pending certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. Beta will also provide landing pads and rechargeable batteries. UPS holds an option to purchase up to 150 more eVTOLs. The price of the transaction was not disclosed. The eVTOLs can fly up to 250 miles at 170 mph on a single charge.

“We’ve also thought about for some urgent moments, like for example bypass New York traffic, and then move it into directly to our 43rd Street building so that we can get around congestion,” Ganesh said. “It’s not going be a fit for all the packages but for certain use cases: Willingness to pay, and urgency, we could potentially think about going into those areas.”

The eVTOLs would be used similarly to small fixed-wing aircraft that have a capacity of 500 to 3,000 pounds. UPS said it initially plans to use them in smaller markets and create a series of short routes or one long route to meet customer needs. The eVTOLs will have an operation advantage over small planes, according to Ganesh, because they’re designed to accommodate shipping containers, which allow for faster movement of packages in many cases.

“The smaller aircraft typically are not containerized. They don’t have any kind of container, so it’s loading a package into these aircraft, then its lands, and then has to be unloaded loaded into a truck or another vehicle and then driven to another location, resorted again, reloaded into the package car that delivers it, ” Ganesh said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/07/ups-...l-markets.html

whalesurfer

IPA EB Response to UPS eVTOL Purchase

Today, a UPS subsidiary, UPS Flight Forward, announced the Company’s purchase of up to 150 electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft scheduled to begin taking deliveries in 2024.
The aircraft are to be manufactured by Beta Technologies (BETA) and designed “to someday operate autonomously as technologies and regulations are established.” The BETA aircraft have a 1,400 lb. cargo capacity.
The UPS/IPA collective bargaining agreement scope clause (Article 1) commits all UPS flying on aircraft having a payload weight greater than 12,899 lbs. to the IPA pilot group. Smaller aircraft (those having a max payload capacity less than 12,899 lbs.) are allowed, and these smaller “feeder” aircraft operate daily, and have done so since the airline’s founding in 1988.
The contract, however, closely restricts the use of feeder aircraft by allowing no combination of multiple feeder aircraft to collectively have a payload capacity exceeding 12,899 lbs. on any given route within a service system. Additionally, UPS/IPA contractual rules legally bind all UPS subsidiaries including UPS Flight Forward, the UPS subsidiary purchasing the small aircraft.
With a payload capacity of 1,400 lbs., the new eVTOL falls into the “feeder aircraft” regulated by contract.
While the Company’s purchase of aircraft intended to “someday” be operated autonomously raises potentially disturbing issues, the Company’s current plans, as they have been communicated to the IPA, do not violate the scope provisions of our contract.
Additional provisions of the contract are also applicable, and all work to restrict the use of these small feeder aircraft, whether remotely piloted or not.
The EB will continue to monitor and ensure contractual compliance. The EB will also continue to monitor technological and regulatory developments as they relate to single-pilot and remotely piloted aircraft of any size. As in the past, the IPA will not hesitate in making a public case that aviation safety is best served by having aircraft operated by professional pilots in the air.
The press release issued today by UPS follows.

jetlaggy

Subsidiary is already formed..its called Flight Forward . Already have the certificate to fly them is being reported. Too small to be in UPS pilot’s scope.

whalesurfer

This is a different type of a drone but it shows they’re spending big bucks in making it happen..

https://youtu.be/xx9_6OyjJrQ

https://www.ups.com/us/es/services/k...rce=longitudes

C2078

The last 20 years have seen a pretty big acceleration in new technologies, I wouldn’t want to be late 20’s/mid 30’s starting this job with so much uncertainty.

whalesurfer

Agree. Not the end of the world BUT people should be aware a huge change is coming and probably sooner than we think.

767pilot

Anyone else remember the gantry or merging and spacing technology? Just saying...

whalesurfer

Sure do; and yes you’re right, this might be yet another brilliant idea from the very top. Especially now with the new, kinder, gentler, tree-hugging, kumbaya-humming, tattoo-, and piercing-friendly leadership.

On the other hand, we have to make sure we don’t become the new cadre of navigators or flight engineers of the past who were all convinced their jobs were safe because airlines wouldn’t be able to function without them. ..and yet today they’re all gone.
..or more recently, the financial gurus (aka pilots) who believed bitcoin would be worthless as of tomorrow because it isn’t real - which technically is true and which could still happen - but as of right now people are paying over $60K for a single bitcoin!

Point being, we don’t really know because technology is changing incredibly fast. So we better pay attention, we need to listen and educate ourselves so we don’t become the relics of the past..

whalesurfer

Browntown - Sorry, didn’t realize your thread was about the new eVTOLs we ordered, thought it was about electric package cars and trucks.

Maybe they could merge the two threads?