Design led product development
Urban Aeronautics
Creating the archetype for urban aircraft
Ido Baruchin is a design leader in the mobility and vehicle industry.
His ability to understand consumer behavior and needs, cultural trends, and business strategy, as well as his experience and understanding of engineering management, enables him to lead sustainable projects and teams.
Ido takes part in creating a company’s narrative and reflecting it through the objects and experiences he is in charge of designing.
He follows a lean design philosophy, striving to simplify the products’ engineering, manufacturing, and aesthetics.
Urban Aeronautics is an Israel-based technology start-up creating city-scale, eco-friendly aircraft that integrate with city infrastructure to save time and lives. Ido was handed the task of redesigning the aircraft and user experience to help the company update its vision.
Ido was in charge of designing the company’s newest urban air taxi, as well as its first urban air ambulance.
This EMS version of the aircraft lands directly on street level in high proximity to the place of an accident, providing the quickest paramedic assistance and EMS evacuation.
Air Ambulance
From the 50’s Walt Disney until these days, it is common to call vehicles that can fly in cities “flying cars.”
Ido found that this mindset may lead to approaching the design process similarly to designing a car, which may result in an object with some identity issues.
Instead, his first step in approaching this new project was to analyze what makes a car a car and what makes an aircraft an aircraft, shining the light on each and distinguishing between these two dogmas. His challenge was to create a new archetype.
This is not a car!
CityHawk Air Taxi
City-scale air travel for all.
Urban Aeronautics
Creating an archetype for urban aircraft
Role & Responsibilities: Head of design- Product vision, Flow architecture, UX/UI, system design
The design team came up with the Terminal product in order to enable the users to create a delivery manifest while in the lab. By that, we saved the need for a screen interface on the station and optimized the system flow which led us to speed the overall time of delivery. Security and chain of custody were some of the advantages that Terminal introduced.
Terminal
Air Ambulance
This EMS version of the aircraft lands directly on street level in high proximity to the place of an accident, providing the quickest paramedic assistance and EMS evacuation.
This is not a car!
From the 50’s Walt Disney until these days, it is common to call vehicles that can fly in cities “flying cars.”
Ido found that this mindset may lead to approaching the design process similarly to designing a car, which may result in an object with some identity issues.
Instead, his first step in approaching this new project was to analyze what makes a car a car and what makes an aircraft an aircraft, shining the light on each and distinguishing between these two dogmas. His challenge was to create a new archetype.
CityHawk Air Taxi
City-scale air travel for all
Carries 4 passengers + 1 pilot
Modular interior: optimal tight-space caregiving
Old CityHawk design / Car dogmas:
Windshield “break”: This is a car dogma originally designed to optimize drivers` forward field of view.
Flat bottom - This is a car dogma since cars will never be visible from the bottom.
Heavy look & feel - Cars are not designed to look lightweight and will often have visually heavy silhouettes.
Suggested new characteristics:
Car-sized - making rooftops a natural habitat
Heavy look & feel - Cars are not designed to look lightweight and will often have visually heavy silhouettes.
Windshield “break”: This is a car dogma originally designed to optimize drivers` forward field of view.
Flat bottom - This is a car dogma since cars will never be visible from the bottom.
Top surface - One very distinct curve that simplifies the look and feel. The simple geometry increases aerodynamic performance as well.
Upside Down triangle helps with the lightweight feeling of the archetype.
Cradle - A “cradle” like shape that “holds” the passengers helps achieve a safe perception of the new archetype as well as ensuring a non-threatening aesthetic when looking at the aircraft from the bottom (which will be the case for the majority of the time).
Top surface - One very distinct curve that simplifies the look and feel. The simple geometry increases aerodynamic performance as well.
Upside Down triangle helps with the lightweight feeling of the archetype.
Cradle - A “cradle” like shape that “holds” the passengers helps achieve a safe perception of the new archetype as well as ensuring a nonthreatening aesthetic when looking at the aircraft from the bottom, (which will be the case for the majority of the time).
Lands in close proximity to crash site