Advanced Air Mobility

The FAA says it will continue the work of a soon-to-end pilot effort with local and state governments and industry to introduce drones more regularly into the airspace system.

Development of the high-altitude long-endurance system has been rocky from the start.

Planned flight trials at FAA-designated UAS test sites in New York and Virginia will evaluate remote-identification technologies to track drones from the ground in increasingly complex traffic environments.

UK talks up FlyZero; JAXA’s low-boom breakthrough; EHang air taxi in Austria; VerdeGo runs hybrid; and SkyDrive aims for 2023.

China’s EHang is to launch an urban air mobility trial in Linz, Austria, the first operation of its kind in Europe.

The advanced air mobility market is beginning to differentiate by manufacturer, by mission and by timing.

NASA has awarded New York State’s FAA-designated unmanned aircraft systems test site an $897,000 task order to research automation technology for vertiport operations.

The FAA has awarded $3.29 million in grants to its unmanned aircraft systems center of excellence, a coalition led by Mississippi State University.

Japanese electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing start-up SkyDrive is looking at launching an air taxi service in 2023 in either Osaka or Tokyo, with initial flights over the sea, CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said in an interview with the Japan Times.

Israeli company Percepto says its Sparrow small unmanned aircraft system for industrial applications now features an integral parachute that meets FAA requirements.

Israeli start-up Gadfin has been selected by multinational energy company Enel Group to demonstrate electrical infrastructure inspection using a fuel-cell-powered long-range drone.

Wireless charging system developer WiBotic on Aug. 6 announced Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorization of its line of transmitters and receivers for charging drones, mobile robots and industrial automation devices.

Hypersonic Air Force One; High-performance missile fuel; MTU/DLR team on fuel cells; Opportunities for hydrogen; and UK advances UTM.

NRO’s new approach to satellites; Russia’s S-70 acceleration; defining “Attritable” in dollar terms; Collins’ training device.

How the Air Force Research Laboratory has put autonomous technology at the forefront of future air warfare since 2017.

Airline MRO Barfield now repairs unmanned aircraft systems components at its facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

The FAA does not plan to extend the UAS Integration Partnership Program after October.

Swiss eVTOL demo; EASA advances AI; suborbital spaceplane; AeroTEC advances electric; EHang expands; and Sunglider flies higher.

China’s EHang has launched an unmanned aerial firefighting version of its two-seat autonomous electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi, demonstrating its ability to fight fires in high-rise buildings.

Chinese urban air taxi developer EHang is to expand its production capacity for autonomous air vehicles as it works to develop domestic and international markets for the passenger-capable aircraft.

The HAPSMobile venture involving Japan’s SoftBank and AeroVironment has completed a fourth test flight of its solar-powered stratospheric unmanned aircraft, flying for longer and reaching a higher altitude than previous tests.

Switzerland’s Dufour Aerospace has completed 550 flights of a large-scale technology demonstrator in an initial phase of testing for its tilt-wing electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has completed the first flight of a Heron TP medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air system to be operated by Germany.

Without naming them, Boeing says many military aviation services are contacting it about the ATS—all wanting to add mass to air battles.

EmbraerX has begun “flights” of an engineering simulator for its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi.