Bcomp, a Swiss startup producing composites using natural fibers, has received an investment from Airbus Ventures as part of a CHF34 million ($35 million) Series B financing round led by BMW i Ventures.
A hybrid-electric power system designed for applications ranging from drones to uncrewed cargo aircraft and passenger air taxis has been unveiled by startup LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions.
With testing of a subscale uncrewed demonstrator underway in waters off Tampa, Florida, Regent has solidified its maritime certification path with confirmations from U.S. and European aviation regulators that its planned wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) regional transports are not considered aircraft.
Austrian startup CycloTech and Japanese package carrier Yamato have completed a study into the feasibility of developing an uncrewed cargo aircraft using thrust-vectoring cyclorotor propulsion to operate in confined urban areas, even in high winds.
German energy company EnBW and aerospace research agency DLR have launched a three-year project to explore the use of cargo and passenger drones to support the maintenance of offshore wind farms.
Germany’s Lilium has taken another step in the type certification process for its electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi, submitting its means of compliance to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
Benefiting perhaps from steadily improving relations between China and Indonesia, EHang has secured its largest commitment to date from an Asian customer with preorders for 100 EH216 autonomous air taxis from Prestige Aviation, an Indonesian aircraft sales and management company.
At first, advanced air mobility flights will be piloted. But the industry widely agrees its aircraft must become autonomous at some point if operations are to scale up to hoped-for high volumes. Rather than if, the debate centers largely on when.
After slow incremental improvements in the performance of advanced air mobility publicly held stocks for the past three weeks, the five-day period ending April 11 brought the nascent industry back to the ground.
German startup Theion is targeting electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft as an early market for solid-state, lithium-sulfur batteries that promise three times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion cells.
Atlantia, the parent company of subsidiaries that have formed an urban air mobility venture known as Urban Blue, is the target of multiple private equity firms.
Hexcel has signed a letter of intent with Archer Aviation to provide high-performance carbon fiber materials for the electric vertical takeoff and landing startup’s production air taxi.
Piasecki is planning to fly an 80-kW fuel-cell powertrain in an off-the-shelf commercial helicopter as a key demonstration step toward development of its PA-890 hydrogen-electric light helicopter.
