Battery startup Solithor and aerostructures specialist Sonaca are talking to aircraft developers to capture energy storage requirements in electric aircraft.
Able to carry a payload of up to 6 kg (13.2 lb.), the current battery-powered Wingcopter 198 has a maximum range of 110 km (68 mi.) at 100 kph (62 mph).
Beta Technologies has opened an engineering center in Montreal to support design, certification and production of the structure for its Alia eVTOL aircraft.
Sikorsky and GE Aerospace plan to develop a fully autonomous hybrid-electric testbed powered by a CT7 turboshaft-driven hybrid-electric propulsion system.
Startup Limosa has signed an agreement with composites specialist Airborne of the Netherlands covering manufacture of a full-scale technology demonstrator.
U.S. researchers have developed a lithium-air battery that could increase energy density by as much as four times over conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Eviation is using masses of data from the first flight of its all-electric Alice commuter aircraft last year to inform the design of the production version.
