New Amphibious Aviation Conference to be Launched in March
Venice will host the first annual Future Opportunities for Seaplanes & Amphibious Aviation conference on March 21. Joint organizers Quaynote Communications and Arena Group selected the historic trading port on Italy’s Adriatic Sea coast as a focal point for innovators looking to tap the potential for water-based air transportation.
The gathering is expected to attract around 200 participants, including aircraft manufacturers, operators, and other stakeholders. The conference agenda will focus on the case for a new generation of amphibious aircraft and how these can be brought into commercial service.
Among the speakers confirmed so far are representatives of electric seaplane developers Jekta and Elfly. Other speakers are expected to come from regulators and service providers such as insurance group Skyrisks and Satcom Direct, which is sponsoring the conference.
In the 1920s, Venice was one of several venues used for the Schneider Trophy seaplane races. Several other start-up companies are working on planes for new seaplanes or seagliders, including Regent, and Cormorant.
Eve Air Mobility Secures Further Line of Credit for eVTOL Aircraft Program
Brazil’s Bradesco Bank has issued Eve Air Mobility a loan guarantee worth up to 490 million reals ($100 million) to support development work on its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft. The line of credit was approved by the country’s National Development Bank (BNDES) on December 21 under terms complying with the Green Loans Principles established to structure loans for environmentally sustainable purposes.
So far, Bradesco has released 127 million reals ($25.756 million) from the line of credit, with the balance to be provided gradually to Embraer’s offshoot venture, according to a schedule agreed to by the BDNES. The capital has been sourced from the Finem Line and Climate Fund accounts established to support work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
“It is an innovative operation and represents an important milestone in the sector, demonstrating our commitment to the decarbonization agenda, investing in more sustainable technologies with lower emissions,” said Bradesco executive director Bruno Boetger. “This reinforces Bradesco’s partnership with Eve, which has been our partner since 2022. We believe that the ESG [environmental, social, and governance] financing guarantee will serve as a reference for other companies that wish to adopt more responsible and sustainable practices in their business, [which is] an increasing trend in the credit market.”
Horizon Aircraft Appoints Board of Directors Ahead of SPAC-based IPO
Horizon Aircraft this week announced a new board of directors as it prepares to complete its planned merger and initial public offering with special purpose acquisition company Pono Capital Three. The Canada-based company is seeking to raise further funding to bring its Cavorite X7 hybrid electric eVTOL aircraft to market.
The new board will be led by founder and CEO Brandon Robinson, who has been appointed as its chairman. Other directors for the post-merger company will include chief operating officer Jason O’Neill, Trisha Nomura, who will chair the audit committee, John Maris, who is CEO of Advanced Aerospace Solutions, and John Pinsent, a chartered accountant.
In a January 3 announcement, Horizon said it expects to complete the merger with Pono Capital Three this month. In December, the company secured C$6.7 million in further funding through convertible notes issued by the Canso Investment Counsel.
Unifly Completes FAA Cybersecurity Project for Uncrewed Traffic Management
Unifly has completed a project assigned by the FAA to develop cybersecurity protection for uncrewed traffic management. The Unified Cybersecurity Model project, which is part of the U.S. air safety agency’s Broad Agency Announcement Call 003 process, included validating the proposed model in an operational environment.
The work was conducted by Unifly, which is a subsidiary of Japanese uncrewed aircraft operator Terra Drone, in partnership with the Rhea Group at the uncrewed air system test site in Syracuse, New York. The validation process involved 60 drone test flights using Unifly’s Broadcast Location and Identification device. The flights included operations under normal conditions, operations involving simulated cyber-attacks, and operations involving the deployment of countermeasures against these attacks.
The initial phase of the project involved interactions with FAA air traffic control officials, as well as NASA, the CNA National Security Analysis agency, Nav Canada, and UAS delivery operator DroneUp.
Technology Companies Combine Efforts To Develop Vertiport Management System
Instrument flight procedure specialist Navos Air is teaming with uncrewed vehicle management and operations group Anra Technologies to develop a vertiport management service for eVTOL aircraft operations. Under a partnership announced in late December, Navos Air will incorporate its flightpath procedures into the system already in development at Anra. The FAA has given Navos Air approval to develop and maintain non-Part 97 satellite-based performance-based navigation instrument flight procedures and also to conduct the evaluation and designation of heliports.
Anra launched its web-based vertiport management system at the Dubai Airshow in November. The U.S. company is already providing software to support uncrewed vehicle operations in more than 15 countries and is looking to expand its offering for uncrewed air traffic management and urban air mobility operations. It is now seeking to add what founder and CEO Amit Ganjoo describes as “the digital layer” to the development of physical infrastructure for eVTOL aircraft.
“As an extension of our advanced air mobility instrument procedure integration work, we were able to leverage our helicopter, low-level flight, and regulatory experience to obtain the first FAA conditional approval for a vertiport,” said Navos Air’s chief designer, Ty Le Roy. “Building upon this experience in our new partnership with Anra, we will design FAA-compliant flight path infrastructure that will be incorporated into Anra’s software for supporting VTOL aircraft arrivals and departures from vertiports.”
