FutureFlight

The Seoul-based Solyu leasing group wants to be part of South Korea's drive to embrace advanced air mobility services and has provisionally agreed to buy up to 50 of SkyDrive's three-seat SD-05 eVTOL aircraft. The agreement builds on its decision earlier this month to purchase 25 of Eviation's Alice electric airplane.

Joby Aviation will mass-produce its four-passenger eVTOL in Dayton, Ohio—home of the Wright Brothers. The California-based eVTOL aircraft developer announced on Monday that it will build its first scaled production facility at Dayton International Airport, where it intends to manufacture hundreds of aircraft per year together with its partner Toyota. 

Two years ahead of its target for bringing hydrogen-powered aircraft to market in 2025, Universal Hydrogen has filed its application for an FAA supplemental type certificate and has been granted the G-1 issue paper. The company will now be stepping up ground and flight testing that recently got underway to generate the data needed for the approval process.

Beta Technologies, a Vermont-based company developing electric aircraft along with a network of charging stations, is expanding its partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense to install an aircraft charger at Eglin Air Force Base in western Florida. Later this year, Beta will send its Alia aircraft to Eglin, where the Air Force will use it for “on-base experimentation” as part of its ongoing efforts to explore defense applications for electric aircraft such as Beta’s Alia.

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Hydrogen propulsion pioneer H2Fly’s efforts to bring the technology to the air transport sector were energized by the breakthrough flight of its HY4 demonstrator aircraft at Maribor Airport in Slovenia last week. Co-founder and CEO Josef Kallo was visibly pleased when talking to media on the sidelines of the event, describing it as “a major milestone” and “world’s first.”

Scottish regional airline Loganair is evaluating options to bring new electric aircraft into its fleet. The carrier's head of sustainability says it needs to do more work to ensure that the business case for decarbonization would stack up, with operating economics that would support affordable airfares.

Bristow Helicopters has placed a firm order for two Volocopter VoloCity eVTOL aircraft with the option to purchase up to 78 additional vehicles in the future. The two companies have also signed a joint development agreement in which they pledged to collaborate on several aspects of the urban air mobility ecosystem, including infrastructure and regulations.

Emergency services provider Falck has agreed to purchase a JA1 Pulse eVTOL aircraft from California-based Jump Aero. This is the first commercial order for the single-seat JA1, which is designed to carry a pilot-medic to the site of a medical emergency as quickly as possible to render lifesaving aid.

SkyDrive is embarking on a joint research project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to study ways to estimate, evaluate, and reduce the noise produced by eVTOL aircraft. The Tokyo-based start-up, which is developing a three-seat eVTOL air taxi, has been using JAXA’s largest wind tunnel since 2021 to evaluate the aerodynamics of its rotors. Now SkyDrive will employ the wind tunnel facility and JAXA's new noise-analysis technology to pinpoint and reduce the sources of noise emitted by the rotors.