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.
South Korea’s Doosan Mobility Innovation (DMI) has secured a 27 billion won ($22 million) investment, primarily for the development of cargo drones powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
Helicopter leasing company Lobo Leasing has signed a letter of intent with Pipistrel that includes deposits for the acquisition of 15 Nuuva V300 hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing unmanned cargo aircraft.
As it works to establish design and manufacturing operations in Montreal, Jaunt Air Mobility has secured two new Canadian investors and advisors, retired Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu and entrepreneur Mitch Garber.
Helicopter and commercial aircraft brokerage Blueberry Aviation has signed an agreement to support Swiss startup Dufour Aerospace in securing launch customers for its Aero2 and Aero3 hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
Boosted by a $23 million Series B financing round funded by investors with combined balance sheets exceeding $300 billion, UK vertiport startup Skyports is increasingly confident that, when certified urban air taxis do become available, the needed infrastructure can be in place.
Pioneer Aerospace, an experienced manufacturer of parachutes and aerodynamic deceleration systems for NASA space missions, has been acquired by Aviation Safety Resources, a company developing aircraft recovery parachute systems for the advanced air mobility market.
