FutureFlight

Boom, the U.S. start-up working on ambitious plans to bring a supersonic airliner into commercial service by the end of this decade, says it will develop its own engine for the Overture program with a team of engine designers, an additive manufacturer, and a turbine engine maintenance specialist.

Airbus’s Acubed innovation center this week rolled out the latest version of a simulation tool that it says will help support the integration of uncrewed aircraft into controlled airspace.

Hybrid-electric aircraft developer Ampaire has received $150,000 in funding from NASA for its High Efficiency Powertrain for Hybrid Aircraft (HEPHA) project, the company announced on December 9. The Phase 1 award from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program will help to fund the “sizing, architecture and other analytical studies” for Ampaire’s hybrid-electric powertrain over the next six months, the company said in a statement. 

Eve Air Mobility, an eVTOL aircraft maker backed by the major Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer, announced on Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent with the advanced air mobility start-up FlyBIS to develop eVTOL operations in South America. As part of the deal, FlyBIS has provisionally agreed to purchase up to 40 of Eve’s eVTOL aircraft. 

Embraer has sharpened the early focus for its Energia future aircraft program to a hybrid-electric concept and a hydrogen fuel-cell platform in its contribution to the industry’s effort to reach carbon-neutral operation by 2050.

California-based eVTOL developer Joby Aviation has partnered with New York City’s Aviation High School to help prepare the next generation of aircraft engineers for “the electric age of flight." 

While a number of companies are hard at work researching and developing hydrogen propulsion systems for more sustainable aircraft, commercial airlines around the world are starting to plan for future operations with hydrogen-powered aircraft. They face significant logistical and business challenges to make this transition work.

Airbus’s multi-path approach to decarbonization took another new direction last week when the company said it is probing how superconductivity technology could make a difference. During its Sustainability Summit event in Toulouse, France, and Munich last week, the airframer announced that it has joined the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in a demonstrator program aimed at promoting the adoption of superconductivity and cryogenics in airborne electrical distribution systems.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have approved the development of an advanced air mobility (AAM) business park in Dubai. The facility will be built by ground infrastructure group VPorts at the Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub (MBRAH), which is part of the vast Al Maktoum International Airport and Dubai South complex.

Lilium says it has started to take pre-delivery payments worth 50 percent of the $7 million to $10 million price of the 50 Pioneer Edition examples of its eVTOL aircraft. The company aims to firm up provisional sales agreements during 2023 covering a total of 603 Lilium Jets as it starts to build the first full-scale, preproduction prototype that it intends to start flight testing in 2024.