FutureFlight

Eco Helicopters is teaming with KiloWatt Aviation and OC Helicopters on a business model that would make electric-powered R44 available for the charter market through a leaseback arrangement with the aircraft owners.

Universal Hydrogen and its new partner Plug Power will build a ground-based prototype for a two-MW hydrogen-electric propulsion system that they intend to retrofit into regional airlines for service entry starting in 2024.

Nearly $3 million in funding from the UK's Aerospace Technology Institute is supporting work by eVTOL developer Vertical Aerospace and a team from the University of Warwick on a supercharger that could extend the range of electric aircraft.

Heart Aerospace feels that its native Scandinavian region is an ideal environment to advance the early adoption of electric air transportation because the local population is increasingly insistent that aviation must lower its environmental footprint and because governments are actively supportive of the new technology. Its ES-19 aircraft is expected to enter commercial service during 2026.

Eight months after the Japanese automotive group invested $394 million with eVTOL developer Joby Aviation, Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development has announced an $800 million fund called Woven Capital that will focus on autonomous mobility, automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and so-called smart cities.

Turkish defense group Baykar Technologies says it will step up the development of flying cars but indicated that it may take more than a decade for these to be ready for use on urban roads.

In an announcement on September 21, European aerospace group Airbus mapped out a plan to get hydrogen-powered airliners into commercial service by 2035 and unveiled concepts for aircraft that could carry between 100 and 200 passengers on flights of up to around 2,300 miles.

Hidden Level's Airspace Monitoring System provides low-altitude data to support detect-and-avoid performance for autonomous aircraft. The company is also a partner in Uber's plans for urban air mobility operations.

Heavy financial losses resulting from the grounding of Boeing's 737 Max airliner and the collapse of the airline market in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic have prompted the U.S. aerospace giant to withdraw from what it now considers non-core businesses.

U.S. manufacturers have been slow to declare plans to enter the electric aviation sector and General Motor's apparent interest in providing batteries for eVTOL aircraft is still a long way short of interest being shown by Asian automotive groups.