FutureFlight

Using its new design for a lightweight turbofan engine, Brazil's Tupan Aircraft is bringing a trio of hybrid-electric cargo drones to market. The uncrewed vehicles will be able to carry loads of up to 600 kg on flights of up to 1,200 km. The company eventually aims to develop a passenger-carrying aircraft.

Joby Aviation subsidiary H2Fly is developing a liquid hydrogen propulsion system that it believes could power 40-seat airliners on flights of up to around 1,250 miles by the end of the 2020s. The European Commission has put the German company in charge of its Project Heaven initiative to prove the case for hydrogen-powered aircraft as part of the Horizon 2020 zero-carbon initiative.

The Speeder is a remotely piloted VTOL air vehicle that is intended for applications including cargo deliveries and evacuating injured troops from the battlefield. Powered by turbine engines, the aircraft is expected to have a payload of 1,000 pounds and be able to fly up to 400 miles at 500 mph.

Volare Aviation, which manages a mix of private jets and helicopters in the executive charter market, has set up a new division called eVolare to operate and sell Lilium's Pioneer Edition version of its eVTOL aircraft. The UK-based company will offer flights throughout the greater London area and provide maintenance.

Archer Aviation has successfully conducted the first-ever transition flight with its Maker eVTOL air taxi prototype.

Xwing, a California-based company developing autonomous flight technology, has been contracted by the FAA to participate in the agency’s Crosscutting Operations Strategy and Technical Assessment (COSTA) air traffic management research project. Xwing will work together with the FAA and NASA to study how remotely piloted aircraft can be safely integrated with the National Airspace System while flying in complex environments with flight restrictions, such as fire traffic areas where other aircraft are actively working to suppress wildfires. 

Volocopter has completed a two-week flight-test campaign as part of Europe’s CORUS-XUAM project to establish how so-called U-Space infrastructure for uncrewed aircraft could be used to support urban air mobility (UAM) flights. The German eVTOL aircraft developer deployed its VoloDrone autonomous vehicle for flight trials that concluded this week at the country’s DLR National Experimental Test Centre for Unmanned Aircraft at Magdeburg-Cochstedt Airport.

In May 2023, up to 25 teams will compete in the Pulitzer Electric Aircraft Race along a 1,000-nm route between Eppeley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, and Dare County Regional Airport (KMQI) near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The National Aeronautic Association has opened the registration process for any electric-powered aircraft, including new eVTOL models, fixed-wing airplanes, and helicopters.

Airbus is accelerating work on the development of a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine as part of its studies into a zero-emission aircraft scheduled for service entry by 2035. The European aerospace group company revealed its plans during a Sustainability Summit held in Toulouse, France, on November 30.

VPorts, a Canadian advanced air mobility (AAM) start-up with plans to build a vertiport network in Québec, has announced what the company says will be the first-ever international AAM corridor for electric aircraft. The company plans to launch an eVTOL flight route between the existing Helico heliport in Mirabel, near Montreal, and Syracuse Hancock International Airport (KSYR) in Syracuse, New York.