Aerospace

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

The two German air taxi companies need state support to exit a funding crisis, but party politics and risk aversion may force their sale to foreign investors.

The long-awaited crewed debut of Boeing’s Starliner caps off a 13-year effort to certify multiple commercial providers of low-Earth-orbit astronaut transport.

AEROX FLUID POWER was added to Boeing's Premier Bidder Program.

FAA forecasts US airline enplanements will grow 2.4% per year over next 20 years to 1.32 trillion in 2044 vs 922b in 2023, and projects US mainline jet fleet will increase from 4,832 in 2023 to 6,894 in 2044 and regionals will rise from 1,772 to 2,000. US air cargo traffic will grow 3% per year to 88.8b RTMs in 2044 as freighter fleet will grow to 1,899 aircraft vs 968.

AIRBUS CANADA reached agreement with its IAMAW-represented A220 workers at Mirabel on new 5-year CBA.

UNICAL ENGINES launched Serviceable Engine Program that offers serviceable engines for sale or exchange.

JOBY AVIATION says it has completed its eVTOL pre-production flight test program and is now focused on the next phase of flight testing, using its production prototype aircraft to prepare for upcoming for-credit flight testing.

HOWMET AEROSPACE had $243m net income on $1.8b sales in 1Q24 vs $148m on $1.6b in 1Q23. It is expecting much slower 737 MAX production than expected and it assumes average build rate of 20 per month for full year 2024.

Netta Washington to Executive Vice President-High Performance Materials and Components (HPMC) of ATI, Dallas.

HANWHA AVIATION, Singapore was launched as new engine leasing platform, initially focused on narrowbody aircraft.

Jeff Lewis to Chief Executive Officer of Hanwha Aviation, Singapore.

Joby said it will launch into flight testing with production prototypes of its S4 air taxi.

Startup Danti has raised $5 million to further develop its natural language processing satellite image search engine.

Spanish/Australian startup Dovetail Electric Aviation expects to begin ground testing a new iteration of its integrated hydrogen fuel cell powerplant as soon as June.

IndiGo's A350 order highlights how Boeing is slipping behind in the region that holds the greatest potential for commercial aviation in the coming decades.

Leonardo Helicopters has secured Italian military certification of an upgrade for the AW101 three-engine heavy helicopter.

Reliable Robotics has completed a road map that outlines how KC-135 Stratotankers can be automated.

At the Dubai Airshow, Archer and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office announced their plans to make the United Arab Emirates Archer’s first international launch partner. Electric air taxi operations will start in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2026.

Investors have plowed billions of dollars into eVTOL ventures but now many are running out of cash. Listen in to hear the latest on the plight of Lilium and Volocopter.

Cancellation of the U.S. Army’s scout helicopter program is driving focus on UAS and uncrewed teaming.

The OEM’s two-decade experiment in remote management has failed.

FAA forecasts US airline enplanements will grow 2.4% per year over next 20 years to 1.32 trillion in 2044 vs 922b in 2023, and projects US mainline jet fleet will increase from 4,832 in 2023 to 6,894 in 2044 and regionals will rise from 1,772 to 2,000. US air cargo traffic will grow 3% per year to 88.8b RTMs in 2044 as freighter fleet will grow to 1,899 aircraft vs 968.

Stuart Simpson to Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Aerospace, London.

ALTAIR acquired RESEARCH IN FLIGHT (computational fluid dynamics software).