Vertical Aerospace’s business model differs significantly from those of its advanced air mobility rivals that are also planning to go public via mergers with blank-check companies, and the UK startup thinks that will give it a competitive edge.
Advanced air mobility offers a clean sheet for development of training centered on pilot competencies rather than traditional prescriptive models, says CAE, as the training provider partners with Volocopter to support the German startup’s electric air taxi services.
As alternative propulsion concepts show promise to help decarbonize aviation, leaders in the commercial aviation, advanced air mobility and business aviation markets have joined forces to establish carbon credits for emissions reductions enabled by electric- and hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Australian startup Swoop Aero has completed a study in Mozambique that demonstrated the feasibility of using drones for the cold-chain transport of infectious tuberculosis and COVID-19 laboratory samples.
For unmanned cargo aircraft to operate effectively within a future express logistics system, what happens on the ground is as important as what happens in the air.
Having developed and flown multiple generations of electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles since its founding in 2010, Kitty Hawk is on the path to fielding its first product, a two-seat H3 version of the high-performance tilt-prop Heaviside.
Aerovel’s Flexrotor long-endurance vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft has demonstrated operations in gusty winds using an autopilot developed by the University of Washington.
Unmanned traffic management specialist ANRA Technologies has partnered with Hyundai to begin developing the operating environment for advanced air mobility.
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.
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.
Volocopter and Near Earth Autonomy are to test autonomous flight technology on the VoloDrone unmanned cargo aircraft. The team plans a beyond-visual-line-of-sight capability demonstration in Munich in 2022.
As progress is made on modernizing FAA Part 147 educational requirements, AMT schools prepare to train students to work with emerging aviation technologies.
Joby Aviation plans to deliver two of its electric vertical-lift aircraft to the U.S. Air Force this year for flight testing, to be followed by more in 2022 and potentially 2023 under the Agility Prime program.
