With investors including Alaska Air Group, UP.Partners has closed a $230 million early stage venture capital fund dedicated to supporting companies enabling future mobility.
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.
Honda made the top 20 list of advanced air mobility vehicle manufacturers in the latest AAM Reality Index rankings, sliding into the 13th position based on plans to build out a mobility ecosystem centered on electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles.
Developments in electric vertical takeoff and landing and hybrid-powered aircraft continue to gain momentum, and the assertion is that there will be an impact on business aviation. But what is this projected impact going to be?
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has bestowed its Meritorious Service to Aviation award to Martine Rothblatt, a pilot and technology entrepreneur who co-founded the company that became SiriusXM radio, then founded biotechnology company United Therapeutics to develop a cure for pulmonary arterial hypertension after her daughter was diagnosed with the condition.
The British Business General Aviation Association (BBGA) says business aviation demand has already surpassed prepandemic levels in parts of the UK, but challenges remain, ranging from lingering Brexit-related issues to tackling sustainability.
Germany’s Volocopter has partnered with Austrian commercial vehicle manufacturer Schwarzmuller to develop a mobile takeoff and landing platform for the VoloDrone electric unmanned cargo aircraft.
Fuel-cell developer and green-hydrogen producer Plug Power has announced partnerships with both Airbus and startup Airflow to bring zero-emission hydrogen propulsion to aviation.
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.
Austrian startup CycloTech has begun tethered flight tests of a demonstrator equipped with its cycloidal rotor technology for vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
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.
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.
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.
