Joby Aviation has become the first company to fly an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft as part of NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign.
Unique weather conditions in urban landscapes are a key challenge for the safety and reliability of advanced air mobility operations that will require the development of new sensing and forecasting capabilities.
Harbour Air, MagniX and H55 have completed the preliminary design review on their electric propulsion modification for the 1940s-vintage de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver.
Electric Power Systems has confirmed that its battery system will power Archer’s Maker electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing demonstrator when it flies this year.
Cambridge University has launched the Aviation Impact Accelerator, an international group of experts who will develop a modeling tool to help decision makers understand the complete aviation system and explore potential pathways to net-zero flight.
Call them letters of interest, pre-orders or some other term, electric aircraft startups are persuading potential customers to make early commitments of different forms to their products. In return, customers are gaining an ability to influence the design and investors are receiving votes of confidence in the aircraft.
Among the technologies integral to managing high-density airspace, fully autonomous aircraft, and air taxis are detect-and-avoid systems that allow aircraft to maneuver around weather, turbulence, obstacles and other aircraft.
Startup HyPoint has entered into a $6.5 million collaborative agreement with Piasecki Aircraft to develop a hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system for electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.
Switzerland’s Dufour Aerospace is unusual among electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing startups in targeting the established helicopter market, and in particular emergency medical services.
Disruptive innovation by startups could play a key role in enabling a sustainable future for aviation, but the sector is barely being considered by investors, the Hamburg-based Sustainable Aero Lab says.
The U.S. startup’s Electric EEL completed several flights on a representative regional airline route from Kirkwall Airport on the island of Orkney to Wick John O’Groats Airport some 40 mi. away on the Scottish mainland.
A Norwegian startup has unveiled plans to develop a nine-passenger electric seaplane and provide a regional aviation service connecting towns along the coast and in the fjords with flights over water.
As it prepares to launch its third and final phase, the UK’s Future Flight Challenge has unveiled its vision for air travel in 2030 and ambitious targets for real-world demonstrations to be completed in 2024.
Embraer has begun flight testing an electric propulsion demonstrator as it targets the introduction of its first all-electric aircraft, the Eve urban air taxi, in 2026.
Startup Regent plans to have a piloted 12-passenger seaglider on the market by 2025 as a replacement for seaplanes and water taxis, followed by a 50-passenger vehicle that the company sees replacing not only ferries, but regional turboprops and jets.
Few ideas in aerospace have been tried and have failed as often as high-speed vertical-takeoff-and-landing but, undeterred by the scores of past dead ends, the U.S. military is trying again.
Under development for four years, Advanced Aircraft Company's multi-rotor HAMR can fly for up to 3.5 hr. or carry a maximum sensor payload of 6 lb. in its dual cargo bay.
A technology being developed to rapidly join thermoplastic and thermoset composites to create optimized lightweight structures for cars and motorcycles is being adapted to aerospace with an eye to enabling high-rate, high-quality production of urban air mobility vehicles.
China private rocket company Deep Blue Aerospace has successfully conducted the country’s first vertical takeoff/vertical landing trial of the Nebula-M reusable rocket after a series of ignition tests in late July.
Delivery drone developer Volansi has completed the first autonomous unmanned air system (UAS) maritime cargo delivery between two moving U.S. government ships.
Customcells will industrialize battery cells for mass production, a key step in Lilium’s plans to scale-up production capacity ahead of the aircraft’s planned commercial launch in 2024.
In a key step towards development of the planned follow-on seven-seater air taxi, Samad Aerospace has completed hover tests of its half-scale e-Starling all-electric prototype aircraft.
