The Pilatus PC-24—described by its manufacturer as a sui-generis “super versatile jet”—took a step closer to entering active service in the UK this week, as distributor Oriens Aviation brought two examples for a familiarization and demonstration tour.
Targeting FAA certification by late 2024 or early 2025, the Denver, Colorado-based company’s ambitious test and development plan calls for assembly and first flight of the initial TriFan 600 test aircraft within the next 20 months.
Heating the battery could enable fast charging for high utilization of electric air taxis while also enabling the rapid discharge rates required to provide the power for vertical takeoff and landing, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have demonstrated.
French startup Ascendance Flight Technologies is progressing toward the public demonstration of its Atea hybrid-electric vertical-takeoff air taxi during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
While commercial aviation remains challenged by the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, private aviation flight volumes have recovered and are exceeding pre-crisis levels, according to NetJets.
Lilium plans to use at least six conforming prototypes for testing in an effort to obtain concurrent European and U.S. type certification of its seven-seat electric air taxi.
Drone delivery system operator Zipline and pharmaceutical company Pfizer have partnered to distribute COVID-19 vaccine as part of a U.S.-led effort to distribute 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to developing countries.
Blank-check company Broadstone Acquisition has cited the deep aerospace industry experience of the team backing Vertical Aerospace as a key reason behind its decision to take the UK electric air-taxi startup public with backing from industry partners and airline customers.
As another electric air-taxi startup announces plans to go public, Embraer has confirmed that its Eve Urban Air Mobility spinoff is in talks with a blank-check company.
Between receiving EASA certification for the aircraft and its electric propulsion unit in June 2020 and the end of last year, Pipistrel delivered 39 Velis Electros.
California startup Archer Aviation says it is on track to certify a four-passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle for aerial ridesharing services in late 2024, and will finalize design of a production version using lessons learned from development of the Maker, a two-seat prototype unveiled in Los Angeles on June 10.
Air-to-ground network developer SmartSky Networks has announced the opening in the southeastern U.S. of the first fully operational coverage area of its inflight communications network for route-based demonstrations.
The FAA will assemble an aviation rulemaking committee to provide the agency with recommendations for allowing routine flights of drones beyond an operator’s visual line of sight, Administrator Steve Dickson said June 9.
Yingling Aviation, based at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, originally began business in 1946 as the first Cessna Aircraft dealer. This year, it is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Andrew Nichols was promoted from chief financial officer to president in 2019, succeeding his dad, Lynn Nichols, who bought the business in 2000.
