Page 25 - AAA March / April 2024 Digital Magazine | GBP
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Q What are the challenges            extremely high levels of safety.    primary reasons for our partici-
        that you foresee for eVTOLs IN       So, if we cannot demonstrate        pation at the Singapore Airshow
        AAM?                                 that eVTOL operation is as safe     was to ensure building and
                                             as commercial aviation, I don’t     growing our relationships and
         Blades will be Achilles heel for    think the market would be open      partnerships in this region.
         everyone in the AAM industry.       to this.
         We will require tens of thou-                                           Also geographically, Advanced
         sands of blades and getting         So, we have multiple consid-        Air Mobility (AAM) could really
         to levels of high production        erations to manage, these are       be very important for future
         volume will be challenging.         related to safety, efficiency,      mobility for countries in this
         There is also the challenge of      manufacturability and afford-       region. Many of the countries
         low-level flight with AAM, where    ability. Operators will also be     here have a large number of
         the operational altitude is below   looking at the lowest operating     islands for example, which
         5000 feet, where birds will be      costs and in our design, we can     could support AAM operations.
         encountered. Bird strikes will      just swap out the batteries. We     While it is true that the current
         have to be taken very seriously     will standout in the market with    AAM capability may not be able
         by the AAM industry.                our offering.                       to support operations in many
                                                                                 of these islands, which are
         We have ensured that our           Q How is Supernal growing its        separated by some distance.
                                                                                 However, battery technologies
         eVTOL design is extremely          presence in the APAC region?         continue to improve rapidly and
         robust to operate safely even                                           future new AAM powertrains
         if one motor fails. Each of our     Hyundai Motor Group’s real          that become available will make
         eight motors is supported by        motivation for starting this        this possible.
         two independent battery packs.      brand-new business ‘Supernal’
         We have conducted extensive         is to advance humanity. As a        At Supernal we are eyeing
         studies and analysis of our         Group, our higher level of moti-    global leadership in the AAM
         eight-motor system and these        vation is to serve as humanity.     space, when the market scales
         have shown that this configura-     So, we cannot just work for the     up. In this region, we will fur-
         tion is the most ideal from the     U.S. and European markets but       ther our global aspirations for
         safety perspective.                 also must focus on this region,     decades to come. As a result,
                                             which is home to a large and        we are starting to work with
         Safety is an important consid-      growing section of the global       Government and industry in
         eration as aviation has been        population. We can support this     APAC countries to setup foot-
         around for over 100 years           growing economy and serve           holds and springboards for
         and passengers are used to          the people here. One of the         Supernal.•





























        ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE                                                          MARCH - APRIL 2024 | 25
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