What are the chances of going into the office of an Israeli company and finding the company founder in the pose of an auto mechanic, with his legs sticking out from under the vehicle? The auto mechanic, Dr. Rafi Yoeli, had limited time for reporters when I entered the hangar at Kfar Truman that serves as the office of Urban Aeronautics, the company he founded. He was too busy preparing the helicopter for its next trial run, scheduled the same day. Yoeli said, “If nothing unexpected happens, and the unexpected is to be expected, the helicopter will fly in another month.”
Yoeli, who worked at Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), was a senior engineer at Boeing (NYSE: BA), and served in the Israel Air Force, thought of the idea of developing an urban helicopter without an exposed rotor. His concept is now becoming a reality; the helicopter has already begun initial trials, including operation of the engine and lifting the rear section.
The flying machine, called the X-Hawk, differs from all existing vehicles. Its rotors are inside the vehicle, not outside it. The technology, developed in the 1960s, was rejected at the time. Yoeli's invention gives his vehicle lateral movement, which enables it to be used for diverse purposes in rescue, maintenance, transportation, etc.
The X-Hawk will contain two jet engines (the current model Yoeli is working on still has combustion engines) in the front and rear. Rotors will be installed above these engines to enable the helicopter to take off. The helicopter’s superior maneuverability, compared with existing helicopters, is provided by hundreds of tiny wings located above and below the engines. The lateral movement of the shutter-like wings provides the helicopter with enough lateral propulsion to handle winds of varying speeds and stay close to buildings.
The X-Hawk is steered with a stick, attached to the engine through a computerized control system entitled fly-by-wire. The system makes it much easier to maneuver the helicopter. This technology is used in F-16 warplanes, among other uses.
The fly-by-wire is a good example of Yoeli’s idea of building the X-Hawk to meet US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards. In order to do that, while avoiding the necessity of getting a new license, Yoeli uses shelf products exclusively.
Helping Yoeli manage the company are Col. (res.) Omri Knoller and Lt. Col. (res.) Eran Ron. Knoller, the company COO, who headed the operations division of the Israel Air Force helicopter wing, is a test pilot by training. Ron, a company director, a combat pilot and former Ministry of Foreign Affairs man, is now in business.
Urban Aeronautics’ board of directors include well-known figures, like Maj. Gen. (res.) David Ivri, who just returned from a term as Israel Ambassador to the US, and BVR Technologies founder Aviv Tzidon as chairman. Ron says that Ivri and Tzidon devote at least one day a week to Urban Aeronautics.
Urban Aeronautics is currently raising money. According to Ron, the company, in which $1 million has been invested to date, needs another $7-8 million in order to display two prototypes at the Paris Air Show 30 months from now. He adds that the X-Hawk’s main advantage, the absence of an exposed rotor, makes it superior in many ways to any other urban flying vehicle. For example, it will not require the huge safety spaces needed by the current light helicopters, can be landed on a crowded street, and can even be flown in an area with many elevated electrical cables.
Incidentally, one proposed application for the X-Hawk is maintenance of high tension wires. Some of this activity is already done by helicopter, but rotors require large safety spaces, leaving service technicians no chance to operate directly from the helicopter. The X-Hawk is expected to overcome this obstacle, because it can get close to the cable and move laterally, enabling maintenance from inside the helicopter itself.
Other future applications suggested by Urban Aeronautics include special policing and patrol vehicles, an executive taxicab, and an evacuation-and-rescue vehicle. The first available application, developed through the Herzliya Medical Center, will be able to transport doctors and paramedics to the scene of an attack, and evacuate the wounded.
Although launching a commercial product is expected to take 5-6 years, Urban Aeronautics believes it can create an exit for investors within two years. The company predicts that the minute the market sees the prototype, a medium-sized or major aerospace manufacturer will either agree to manufacture and market the vehicles, in exchange for a large stake in the company, or acquire the company outright. Ron: “It’s obvious that a small Israeli company can’t manufacture helicopters by itself. A large concern at least the size of IAI is needed to start commercial manufacturing. We’ll develop the product as far as the prototype. The question is whether the available capital in Israel is capable of exploiting the opportunity and moving the project forward.”
Coming out from under his helicopter, Yoeli adds, “The value of the company will jump to a whole new level the minute we go to the Paris Air Show and demonstrate evacuation and rescue from skyscrapers.”
”Globes”: There are plenty of pilots in the Israeli venture capital industry. Surely you know them well.
Ron: ”The pilots have been here. The problem with venture capital funds is that they lack the tools to evaluate the future profitability of a project like this. They concentrate on software, communications, or the life sciences. They have no methodology for evaluating companies in a completely different field. They would find it difficult to justify a $2 million investment in a field so far away from what they usually do. We’re now trying to assemble a consortium of funds, each of which would risk a much smaller sum, but which could jointly provide a large amount of money.
”Keep in mind that we’re aiming at a specific target – a flying vehicle licensed by the FAA. It isn’t Jules Verne or science fiction. It’s a flying vehicle that opens another field of aviation, with the help of technologies whose time has come and Yoeli’s inventions. The X-Hawk will really do everything we say it will, if we’re able to develop it the right way.”
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 12, 2002