FutureFlight

Korea’s Hyundai has expanded its ambitions in the field of advanced air mobility with the addition of a hydrogen-powered eSTOL aircraft to its previously announced plans for a battery-powered eVTOL vehicle made by its Supernal subsidiary. Hyundai’s new Korean Advanced Air Mobility unit will take responsibility for the development of the eSTOL aircraft, which would fly to a range of 1,000 km and whose application would at first center on a network around Seoul by about 2030.

Skyportz and its new partner Sea World Helicopters are targeting Australia's Gold Coast metropolitan area and the nearby city of Brisbane as prime locations to launch eVTOL air services in time for the 2032 Olympic Games. The partners are looking to firm up federal and state government support for their plans.

California-based hydrogen fuel cell system developer HyPoint has signed a partnership agreement with Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories (GTL) to integrate the aerospace engineering company’s new liquid hydrogen fuel tanks with HyPoint’s fuel cell system. GTL’s BHL Cryotanks have demonstrated a 75 percent mass reduction compared with existing metal or composite aerospace cryotanks, allowing hydrogen aircraft and eVTOL makers to store as much as ten times more liquid hydrogen fuel without adding mass.

Lilium is about to restart flight testing of its five-seat, fifth-generation eVTOL technology demonstrator and will soon have two examples airborne. It aims to be flying a preproduction prototype of the seven-seat Lilium Jet by the first quarter of 2023.

According to EHang, the Civil Aviation Administration of China is set to issue an airworthiness certificate for its two-seat, autonomous EH216 eVTOL vehicle around the middle of this year. The company says it will then gradually step up commercial operations with multiple customers and partners.

The UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) on April 4 will begin accepting new applications for a share of £685 million of funding over the next three years, representing an increase of £235 million on the previous three years. The funding supports the development of zero-carbon and ultra-low-emission aircraft technology, which the ATI said cements the UK’s place at the forefront of advancing green technology while supporting tens of thousands of jobs.

Turkish aviation group Gozen has agreed to take up to 50 of Vertical Aerospace's VX4 eVTOL aircraft from leasing group Avolon, which believes that only scheduled airline operations will be viable in the early stages of the advanced air mobility market. Its new Avolon-e division has placed all 500 of the aircraft it preordered from Vertical in 2021 and has exercised an additional 50 options.

FedEx Express and Elroy Air have reached an agreement under which the package delivery giant would test Elroy Air’s Chaparral autonomous air cargo system within its middle-mile logistics operations. FedEx and Elroy Air have worked together since January 2020 and plan to continue their collaboration to pursue the start of flight testing in 2023. The eVTOL aerial cargo system can autonomously pick up 300 to 500 pounds of cargo and deliver it by air to a range of 300 miles without the need for additional infrastructure such as airports or charging stations.

Evidently, Eve anticipates no cooling in investor excitement about the advanced air mobility sector following the flurry of SPAC-backed equity flotations in 2021. The company indicated to investors this week that it expects to raise well over $500 million from a deal based on a merger with Zanite Acquisition that is expected to close during the second quarter of 2022.

Hydrogen is gaining ground as a medium- to long-term alternative aviation fuel that will deliver on carbon-neutral objectives, but it is only as green as the process used to make it. This conundrum has prompted Element 1 to develop a process using methanol as a feedstock.