FutureFlight

Xpeng’s X2 Flying Car Makes River Crossing in Hunan Province

The fifth generation of the XPeng AeroHT’s flying car concept, the two-seat Xpeng X2, completed its first demonstration flight over the Xiang River at Changsha in Hunan province on August 26. Starting its flight from the river’s left bank, the X2 flew just shy of a mile in four minutes before landing safely at Zhoutou Square.

Taking the advanced air mobility (AAM) hype at face value, eVTOL aircraft developers continue to promise investors they will be producing vehicles at rates never previously achieved in the aviation industry. The forecast economies of scale for this new sector of air transportation are predicated on achieving new levels of manufacturing efficiency that have prompted some companies to look outside the mainstream aerospace sector for expertise and bandwidth.

The Canadian company has agreed to a business combination with Pono Capital Three in a new bid to raise capital to bring its Cavorite hybrid-electric aircraft to market. Horizon says that better-than-expected results from early flight testing of a half-scale demonstrator have led it to increase the size of the latest X7 design to carry six passengers and a pilot.

Terra Drone has acquired a majority stake in uncrewed air traffic management (UTM) specialist Unifly. The Japanese group said the deal completed this week to take its equity holding in the Europe-based company to 51 percent will boost its growth plans in both drone operations and the urban air mobility sector.

Just one year after Textron publicly confirmed its intent to develop and certify the hybrid-electric Nexus eVTOL aircraft, the U.S. aircraft manufacturer has made a leadership change at its new eAviation business unit in a move that could signal a new approach to its advanced air mobility efforts. To date, the timeline for bringing the aircraft to market has been relatively open, with company indicating type certification could be possible anywhere between 2028 and 2032, with 2030 seen as the most probable date.

Reliable Robotics and FAA Finish Flight Test Campaign

Autonomous flight specialist Reliable Robotics has completed a flight test campaign with the FAA to demonstrate the safe integration of remotely piloted aircraft in congested airspace, the company announced this week. 

Ampaire has been extending flight testing of its hybrid-electric technology demonstrator aircraft, Alaska being the latest destination. This week, the company reported that as part of a 3,400-mile series of flights starting in Southern California, where it is headquartered, its test aircraft landed at Fairbanks International Airport on August 13.

Bristow has conducted its first flight test with Beta Technologies’ Alia aircraft, one of several new advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles that the helicopter operator intends to add to its worldwide fleet of rotorcraft. A senior pilot from Bristow took the Alia prototype out for a spin on August 22 to conduct a “qualitative evaluation” of the six-seat air taxi, Beta announced today. 

If the urban air mobility (UAM) industry lives up to its hype, someday in the not-too-distant future thousands of eVTOL air taxis could be operating at airports and vertiports around the world, offering passengers a convenient new way to travel across cities while bypassing traffic jams. But UAM won’t be immune to the weather delays, staffing shortages, and other operational glitches that have recently plagued airlines, disrupting flight schedules and inconveniencing passengers on a daily basis. 

EHang is expecting to receive a type certificate very soon for its EH216-S autonomous eVTOL aircraft from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), after reporting it has now completed all required testing. If confirmed, this would make the Chinese company the first in the world to get approval for an eVTOL vehicle, with leading Western regulators not expected to follow suit until at least the second quarter of 2024.