FutureFlight

Skyway's recent alliance with weather data group TruWeather is the latest move in its plans to cluster together the expertise the uncrewed traffic management Provider of Services for UAMs says is needed to support commercial autonomous flight operations. Secure sharing and aggregating of flight data will be critical to achieving the safety standards the FAA and other stakeholders will require, says the company.

Volocopter and Skyports this week signed agreements to explore options for using the Seletar Aerospace Park as a springboard for advanced air mobility activities in Singapore. The large site includes a business aviation airport and is already home to many aviation manufacturers and service companies, as well as aircraft operators.

Japan's largest airline, ANA, is set to be involved in Joby's planned eVTOL air taxi services, which could start in the Asian country by 2025. Under a collaborative venture that also involves carmaker Toyota, the partners are laying the groundwork for routes such as a 15-minute flight from the center of Osaka to the populous region's offshore Kansai International Airport.

With its Alice all-electric aircraft now expected to make its first flight in the next few weeks, Eviation's co-founder and CEO Omer Bar-Yohay is leaving the business just weeks after former chairman Roei Ganzarski departed. The U.S. company announced that its president Gregory Davis is stepping into the CEO's role as it works to keep type certification of the redesigned model on track.

Amprius says its latest 450-Wh/kg, 1150-Wh/L high-energy-density lithium-ion cells represent a step-change in battery performance that could support a wide variety of new electric aircraft. The company's Si-Nanowire silicon-based anodes are a key differentiator because they have lower resistance than traditional electrodes, resulting in higher power.

Odys has trialed a sub-scale demonstrator for its patented process for generating vectored thrust via extending the wing flaps to support both vertical and cruise phases of flights. The start-up intends to fly a single-seat scale model of the hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft before the end of 2022, boosted by a seed funding round that raised $12.4 million and an earlier commitment from public charter operator JSX to buy an initial 200 units.

The Italian start-up has relocated its headquarters close to those of Leonardo Helicopters in the Lombardy region of northern Italy and has boosted its leadership team with the appointment of two former senior executives from the aerospace group. The Manta engineering team will soon have two one-third-scale prototypes in flight testing, and, with the design for the ANN2 model frozen, it expects to start assembling a full-scale prototype at the beginning of 2023.

On-demand private aviation digital platform Yugo has signed a memorandum of understanding for up to 12 of Electra's hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft to be available for charter flights in the Asia-Pacific region. The Singapore-based company works with a network of business aircraft charter providers.

Embraer subsidiary Eve Urban Air Mobility aims to certify its four-passenger eVTOL vehicle to be ready to start deliveries in 2026, initially under the requirements of ANAC, the aviation regulator in its home country, Brazil. At the same time, it will pursue international validation of this type certificate to allow it to bring the aircraft into service with operators worldwide.

The start of the conformity testing marks the beginning of the implementation phase of the type certification process for Joby's all-electric, four-passenger eVTOL aircraft. The tests were devised by Joby engineers and are overseen by FAA-designated engineering representatives who observe and document the production process to ensure that systems and structures are consistent with design specifications.