When Aviation Week’s Advanced Air Mobility Report began following the composite performance of AAM’s publicly traded stocks, it was a given that the composite would show the typical results of a startup company–in this case a group of companies.
In a bid to promote the commercialization of drone-based products and services, a plan to build a 165-mi. network of drone “superhighways” linking cities across the UK has been submitted by a consortium led by unified traffic management provider Altitude Angel.
Chinese startup TCab Tech has conducted transition flight tests with a 50%-scale demonstrator of its planned E20 electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi.
So far, Beta Technologies and Volocopter are showing it is possible to build a billion-dollar business in advanced air mobility without the distraction of going public.
Ferrovial Airports has appointed Bob Montgomery as head of vertiports business development and Brad Miller as vertiports managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
JetBlue Technology Ventures, the airline’s investment arm, has participated in a $13 million funding round by battery developer Electric Power Systems.
Vertical Aerospace expects to certificate its VX4 air taxi concurrently with the UK and Europe, with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency agreeing to validate UK Civil Aviation Authority type certification of the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
As it ground-tests a 2-megawatt electric motor with the intent of converting a 100-seat regional jet to zero-emission propulsion, Wright Electric has received a U.S. Air Force contract to modify the technology into a lightweight, high-power generator as a battlefield recharger for electrified vehicles.
BAE Systems plans to provide energy-management components, including the battery and cabling, for the megawatt-class hybrid electric propulsion system being developed by GE Aviation under the recently awarded NASA Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project.
New Zealand’s Ocean Flyer, a new company formed by the owner of small charter operator Air Napier, has placed firm deposits with U.S. startup Regent for 25 sea-skimming electric seagliders for harbor-to-harbor overwater regional transportation.
Despite advances in electric propulsion and battery energy density, as well as a patent filing showing its interest in hybrid-electric systems, Bell is taking a more conventional route to AFWerx’s High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing Challenge.
Management changes are not unusual as companies go through their different phases of growth, but Archer Aviation’s April 19 announcement that co-founder and co-CEO Adam Goldstein had been named the startup’s sole CEO came as a surprise to many.
Safran is gaining experience in electric propulsion, testing prototypes and studying aircraft architectures as it positions itself as the supplier of a full range of motors for all-electric and hybrid propulsion systems, from light aircraft to narrowbodies.
A potential order for five electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft by the U.S. Air Force in fiscal 2023 may not register on lists of the largest customers for the flying taxi industry, but could still have a major impact on the experimental technology.
As manufacturers progress toward type certification of their electric air taxis, preparations for production are gathering pace. And the industry leaders are taking different approaches.
