AAM_Tech_Developments

By Graham Warwick
Washington State University is helping startup Zeva Aero with development of a single-person electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle under a grant from the state’s Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Swiss startup Dufour Aerospace has launched a tiltwing unmanned cargo aircraft as a step toward development of its planned Aero3 passenger-carrying electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft
Advanced Air Mobility

By Guy Norris
The rotor system will power a flying demonstrator of the company’s Butterfly quad-tiltrotor starting late in 2022 or early in 2023.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
A European project to demonstrate a modular hybrid-electric propulsion architecture for future small short/medium-range regional aircraft has been completed with flight tests of a second power train demonstrator.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
Canada’s Harbour Air Seaplanes has received C$1.6 million ($1.3 million) from the British Columbia government to support plans to electrify its fleet of aircraft.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

By Graham Warwick
Barely a month after completing a $100 million series A fundraising round, Chinese startup Autoflight has flown a prototype of its V1500M three/four-passenger electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Carole Rickard Hedden
There are oh-so-many technological challenges remaining for the creators of the electric motors, engines and vehicles that will begin to fly under the banner of advanced air mobility.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Automated flight control system startup Skyryse has raised $200 million in funding and signed partnerships with five fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft manufacturers, including Robinson Helicopter.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
In July 2019, research and development center Tecnalia in Spain’s Basque region conducted tethered indoor test flights of the prototype of an unusual “drone of drones” design for an autonomous air taxi. Now Spanish unmanned aircraft services provider Umiles has acquired the design from Tecnalia with the goal of producing the first 100% domestically developed electric-vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Startup ZeroAvia has partnered with Mitsubishi’s CRJ support division, MHI RJ Aviation, to develop hydrogen-electric propulsion for regional jets, aiming for market availability in 2028.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Airflow has signed a memorandum of understanding with Honeywell to explore use of the avionics manufacturer’s IntuVue RDR-84K compact multimode radar for detect-and-avoid on its planned electric short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Citing increased confidence following static tests of its ultraquiet electric propulsors, startup Whisper Aero has accelerated plans to use the technology in a quiet, efficient electric general aviation aircraft.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Guy Norris
Despite pandemic-related supply chain disruption, the redesigned Eviation Alice is in final assembly ahead of first flight by year-end.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
The European Space Agency and UK air navigation service provider NATS are exploring whether 5G cellular communications technology could help to provide a resilient positioning capability for uncrewed air systems.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Backed by Chinese electric car maker XPeng, startup HT Aero has reached agreement to raise more than $500 million to develop an integrated flying and driving vehicle.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
A central tenet of Uber’s Elevate vision for urban aerial ride sharing was that this is commercial air transport—aircraft owned by airlines and flown by professional pilots plying between vertiports.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Volocopter and logistics company DB Schenker conducted the first public demonstration of the VoloDrone heavy-lift unmanned cargo aircraft at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg on Oct. 12, and followed up by announcing plans for a mobile takeoff and landing platform for the cargo aircraft.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Universal Hydrogen has raised an additional $62 million in funding to take the startup through initial flight testing of its hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion conversion for regional turboprops.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
Reliable Robotics has raised an additional $100 million in funding to continue development of its remotely operated aircraft system for cargo and passenger aircraft.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
Universal Hydrogen (UH2) has raised an additional $62 million in funding to take the startup through initial flight testing of its hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion conversion for regional turboprops.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
China’s AutoFlight debuted its planned V1500M electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi at Airshow China 2021 in Zhuhai at the end of September.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
The first announced application for EP Systems’ EPiC lithium-ion battery module, the eDA40 is designed for use as an electric circuit trainer.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
Austrian startup CycloTech has begun tethered flight tests of a demonstrator equipped with its cycloidal rotor technology for vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
Germany aerospace center DLR has broken ground on a test site for hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion systems.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
As Rolls-Royce continues its push into electrified propulsion, the engine maker has signed an agreement to establish facilities in Germany for developing, testing and producing hybrid-electric power trains.
Advanced Air Mobility