FutureFlight

Boeing has assumed full ownership of eVTOL aircraft developer Wisk Aero, which has been run as a joint venture with Kitty Hawk, an advanced mobility start-up formed by Google co-founder Larry Page and Google executive Sebastian Thrun. Speaking at a media briefing in South Carolina on May 31, Wisk CEO Brian Yutko announced the change of ownership while not providing any details about financial terms for the transaction between Boeing and its former partners.

Volocopter Selects Maintenance Software for eVTOL Aircraft Operations

Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC) is acquiring Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky Heliplex facility in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, to establish a research and development hub for VTOL aircraft and uncrewed aerial systems. The 219,000-sq-ft site previously served as the production and delivery center for Sikorsky’s S-76 and S-92 helicopters.

Destinus, the European start-up developing a hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft, has flown its Jungfrau subscale technology demonstrator drone using new hydrogen afterburners. The company said that multiple flights conducted at an undisclosed airport near Munich on May 24 marked the world’s first inflight deployment of hydrogen afterburner technology.

Cargo drone start-up Dronamics says it has successfully completed the first flight of its flagship aircraft, the Black Swan. The remotely piloted cargo freighter took off from Balchik Airfield in northeast Bulgaria and flew for 10 minutes and 30 seconds, reaching an altitude of 2,000 feet. 

Lyte Aviation is exploring the basis for hybrid-electric VTOL flights to replace ferries to connect island communities in the Seattle area with its planned 40-seat SkyBus LA-44 aircraft. The European start-up unveiled plans for the tandem tilt-wing design in March and is working toward projected type certification and service entry in 2030.

Natilus's Kona autonomous cargo aircraft is a blended-wing-body design, which the company says is well suited to storing hydrogen fuel to maximize payload and range. It will use the ZA600 hydrogen-electric propulsion system being developed by ZeroAvia.

Merlin has deployed a pair of Cessna Caravan aircraft to continue testing of its autonomous flight technology at its new facility in New Zealand. The company says this process will include joint cargo delivery operations with local company Freightways.

NASA Flight Trials Evaluate Communications Infrastructure for Advanced Air Mobility

The business aviation community got its first glimpse at what it will be like to travel in nascent eVTOL aircraft, with a full-scale mockup of the Lilium Jet unveiled this week at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva. The German manufacturer exhibited an example of the Pioneer Edition, which features a club-four seating configuration that gives more space than the standard six-seater Shuttle version.