Boeing NeXt was a division of aerospace manufacturer Boeing, exploring urban air mobility. Its portfolio includes a passenger air vehicle (PAV), a cargo air vehicle (CAV) and other urban, regional and global mobility platforms.[1]

Boeing NeXt
Company typeDivision of
The Boeing Company
IndustryAviation
Headquarters,
Key people
Per Beith
ProductsE. g. Boeing PAV, CAV, Cora by Wisk
ParentBoeing

By September 2020, Boeing was to close its Boeing NeXt division, in response to financial losses in the wake of the 737 MAX groundings and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation.[2]

Projects

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Passenger air vehicles

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To test on-demand autonomous air transport, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences designed and developed in one year an electric VTOL Passenger Air Vehicle prototype. It made its first flight on January 22, 2019, in Manassas, Virginia, hovering before further tests and a transition to forward flight.[citation needed]

The Cora by Wisk is an autonomous personal air vehicle prototype developed by Wisk Aero LLC (Cooperation of the Kitty Hawk Corporation and Boeing).[3]

Boeing and Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche, Porsche Engineering Services GmbH and F.A. Porsche decided October 2019 to work together to design a personal air vehicle prototype.[4][5]

Cargo air vehicle

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The unmanned, fully electric cargo air vehicle (CAV), transporting up to 500 lb (230 kg), was flying indoor in 2018 before outdoor flights in 2019.[1]

Further projects

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Beside the application development of electrically powered aircraft, NeXT develops concepts in the field of civil supersonic and hypersonic aircraft.[6][7]

SkyGrid, a kind of aerial operating system using AI.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Boeing Autonomous Passenger Air Vehicle Completes First Flight" (Press release). Boeing. Jan 23, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  2. ^ Charles Alcock (September 17, 2020). "Boeing NeXt To Close, Raising Doubts over eVTOL Activities". AIN online.
  3. ^ "Kitty Hawk Announcements". evtol.news. 24 Aug 2019. Archived from the original on 24 April 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  4. ^ "Boeing Partners with Porsche". evtol.news. 4 Nov 2019. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  5. ^ Brian Garrett-Glaser (15 Oct 2019). "Porsche and Boeing to Explore 'Premium' Urban Air Mobility Market". aviationtoday.com. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Boeing launches Boeing NeXt and reveals investment in AI and blockchain - Robotics & AI". futuretravelexperience. July 2018.
  7. ^ "Boeing Partners with Aerion to Accelerate Supersonic Travel". Boeing.com. Feb 2019.
  8. ^ "SkyGrid now gives drone pilots hyper local weather". uasmagazine.com. 12 Feb 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
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