Aircraft & Propulsion

Aviation Week editors gather in Las Vegas to talk about the buoyant mood at 2021 NBAA-BACE and COVID-19’s silver lining for the business aviation industry.

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.

A new Bombardier-Signature Flight Support memorandum of understanding, unveiled on Oct. 12, expands their cooperation.

A roundup of announcements at NBAA-BACE: Day One

One straight line runs through Bombardier’s journey through the aviation business: the Challenger large-cabin business jet.

Textron Aviation and Xwing signed agreement to accelerate integration of autoflight technologies into existing/future aircraft.

Bombardier kicked off NBAA-BACE with the announcement of the launch customer for the Challenger 3500.

Airbus Corporate Helicopters has weathered the pandemic with stable sales, and expects to surpass its 2020 performance this year.

SpeedNews Briefs From NBAA-BACE: Day One

What is Honda up to at this year’s NBAA-BACE? The mystery, whatever it might be, is hidden from view by huge black curtains.

Jaunt Air Mobility, specialist in electric vertical takeoff and and hybrid-electric aircraft, has agreed to merge with AIRO Group.

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

Lessor LCI Helicopters’ parent has bought out minority stakeholder KKR, returning ownership to the founding Libra Group after seven years, the companies announced Oct. 11.

Dassault will complete detailed design of Falcon 10X by year-end and begin parts production 2022; it will enter service in 2025.

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.

NetJets placed an order worth more than $1.2 billion for 100 Embraer Phenom 300Es, which will about double its fleet of the Phenom 300 series.

In a double move that Boeing Business Jets says underpins renewed product confidence and market growth, the company has announced the service debut of the first 737 MAX-based BBJ 737-8 as well as the first new order for the corporate variant since the return of the MAX to commercial service in 2020.

Recent engine selections for Gulfstream’s ultra-long range G800 and Dassault’s Falcon 10X with the Pearl have solidified Rolls-Royce’s lead in the long-range business jet market.

U.S. battery startup Lyten is looking to electric aircraft as a potential early market for its energy-dense lithium-sulfur batteries as it scales up to meet expected demand from the automotive industry by 2025-26.

A shift from electric and hybrid-electric propulsion toward hydrogen is evident among sustainable aircraft projects announced so far this year, according to European consultancy Roland Berger.

U.S. startup Prometheus Fuels expects to begin delivering commercial quantities of its carbon-neutral sustainable aviation fuel toward the end of 2022.

Startup VerdeGo Aero has validated the efficiency of its VH-3 hybrid-electric powerplant in more than 500 full-scale ground tests of prototype systems since mid-2020.

Oxford University spinout Brill Power has launched a new type of battery management system that can increase storage capacity and lifetime.

EC Power has received a U.S. Air Force contract to develop a lithium-ion battery cell capable of extreme fast charging of electrified aircraft and ground vehicles.

Over the next 10 years, Aviation Week Intelligence Network Fleet & Data Services forecasts deliveries of more than 7,900 business jets and 2,700 turboprops, for a total of 10,600 aircraft valued at $240 billion.