Advanced Air Mobility

Startup Reliable Robotics has remotely piloted a Cessna 208B Caravan from a ground station 50 mi. away, a key step toward certifying an autonomy retrofit for the aircraft that will enable unmanned regional cargo operations.

Archer has committed to launching an urban air mobility network in Miami by 2024 which will see Southern Florida join Los Angeles as a flagship market for the startup’s planned air taxi services.

NASA electrifies propulsion; turbo air-cooled fuel cell; hydrogen power-train testbed; and funding boosts Volocopter.

Startup Jump Aero is to study the use of an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle to calibrate navigation aids, as an alternative to a costly fixed-wing platform.

Rolls-Royce has been selected to provide the electrical propulsion system for Vertical Aerospace’s gull-wing VA-X4 urban air mobility aircraft.

France and Germany have overcome hurdles on the road to FCAS, but disagreement on intellectual rights could fracture fragile progress.

U.S. Army demos future UAS; Italy’s F-35s Embark; Military training merger; and a new Dash 8 agreement.

German urban air mobility startup Volocopter has raised €200 million ($241 million) to complete development and launch services with its Volocopter electric air taxi.

Flint Hills Solutions has partnered with UAV Navigation to integrate their joint technologies into the FH-900 Series autonomous Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial System helicopter.

Short-seller attack on Chinese startup EHang highlights the risks to investors in a nascent market.

Reverse merger with blank-check investment vehicle will vault Joby to the top of the UAM valuation league.

The European arm of General Atomics is studying adapting the Dornier 228 twin-turboprop into an unmanned cargo aircraft. The company says an unmanned Dornier 228 could open up new prospects for growth for the platform, following its purchase of the rights to produce the aircraft from Switzerland’s RUAG International.

Liquid-hydrogen prototype; lenticular rotors; GPS in GEO; emergency-response eVTOL; and flying car advances.

Digital manufacturing trend yields new experimental, air-launched UAS at Lockheed’s rapid prototyping house.

Bipartisan leaders of the U.S. House Transportation Committee have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the FAA’s efforts to introduce drones into the national airspace system.

The former Boeing CEO and business partner Kirstin Bartok Touw discuss their new investment venture.

Kitty Hawk has partnered with European health care company Falk to evaluate use of the Heaviside electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle in emergency response operations.

Joby Aviation is going public in a transaction that will provide the urban air mobility startup more than $1.5 billion to complete aircraft development and begin air taxi services.

European publication of certification rules for road-capable gyroplanes has cleared the way for the Netherlands’ PAL-V to complete development of its Liberty flying car.

Hard on the heels of its billion-dollar investment deal, urban air mobility startup Archer has committed to launch its first air-taxi network in Los Angeles by 2024.

Advanced air mobility startup Lilium has selected Spanish aerostructures supplier Aciturri to build the composite airframe for its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air taxi.

A trial to use cargo drones to carry medical supplies and samples in western Scotland has been extended and expanded.

Integrating electric propulsion; Jaunt advances Journey; Leonardo’s cargo drone; Finnish e-fuel research; smart rotors for eVTOL.

In perhaps a first sign of consolidation in the overcrowded urban air mobility market, two startups are to combine.

Listen in as the former Boeing CEO and his new business partner Kirsten Bartok Touw discuss plans to invest in transformational aerospace technologies—and why the next 20 years could be the best ever.