FutureFlight

During last week's European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva, Eviation opened its order book for the nine-passenger electric fixed-wing aircraft to international customers. It sees the Alice joining the fleets of scheduled airlines, business aviation operators,. and freight carriers

The flaps that will redirect airflow from the 30 electric fan engines on Lilium's eVTOL aircraft will be jointly developed by Spanish components and aerostructures group Aernnova. Lilium is also working to achieve longer-term advances in battery technology through a new research and development collaboration with lithium specialist Livent.

Osaka, Japan, is being prepared as a proving ground for eVTOL air taxi services that are set to begin in 2025. The required ground infrastructure could include vertiports integrated with existing parking lots under a new collaboration between local companies Park24, Aioi Nissay Dowa, and Kanematsu, and ground infrastructure specialist Skyports.

Xwing is working to gain approval to convert existing aircraft, such as the Cessna Caravan, to operate autonomous commercial cargo flights under the supervision of a ground-based pilot. It is seeking FAA approval to start flights with its technology on an experimental basis and has just recruited Earl Lawrence, the FAA's outgoing executive director for certification.

Aircraft ground handling chain Jetex will build and operate takeoff and landing infrastructure and services for eVTOLs under a strategic partnership with Volocopter. The company provides ground handling services, mainly in the private and business aviation sectors.

Joby’s receipt of its FAA Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate would allow the company to start on-demand air taxi operations with its Cirrus SR22 and “a small number” of other traditional fixed-wing aircraft. The company submitted more than 850 pages of manuals for approval and its pilots demonstrated mastery of the associated procedures and training under FAA observation.

In a month-long set of flight trials, Brazilian helicopter operator Helisul Aviação helped Eve to gather the data on which its recently published concept of operations for urban air mobility for Rio de Janeiro was based. It proved to be an interesting study of what happens when passengers interact with a new mode of transportation.

As part of the Netherlands’ Power Up initiative to introduce electric-powered commercial passenger flights within five years, France’s VoltAero plans to perform demonstration flights with its first Cassio hybrid-electric aircraft starting June 13.

ZeroAvia has expanded an agreement outlined by an October 2021 memorandum of understanding with Mitsubishi’s MHI RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ) that calls for the CRJ certificate holder to provide engineering services and aircraft integration to support ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric powertrain for retrofit onto regional jet airframes.

Each of Lilium Jet's 30 fan engines fitted in the wings and canard will have its own electric motor. Lilium has chosen Honeywell Aerospace and Japanese automotive group Denso to develop these 100 kW motors, which will each weigh just 4 kg.