eVTOLs under a microscope – challenges ahead for distributed electric propulsion

Name: eVTOLs under a microscope – challenges ahead for distributed electric propulsion
Start: 2026-06-11T17:30:00+02:00
Location: TUM Campus Garching

Schedule

Thu, 11 Jun, 2026 at 05:30 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

TUM Campus Garching | Munich, BY

Hybrid Event - Prior Registration required
Speaker: Dr. Rashid Ali is a Senior Lecturer at Coventry University, UK with over four decades of combined academic and industrial experience in aerospace engineering, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), flight dynamics, and control.
Details: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) is arguably the foundation of Advanced and Urban Air Mobility (AAM/UAM). Promising cleaner, faster, and more connected skies, these systems are increasingly facing the challenges of certification. Four critical dimensions of viability — technical, functional, operational, and societal —determine whether eVTOLs can transition from prototypes to practical transport. Challenges discussed include rotor control authority, autorotation and emergency descent capability, power management, transition stability, as well as the operational fragility of urban vertiport logistics, weather sensitivity, maintenance cycles, and pilot workload.