FutureFlight

UK-based Vertical Aerospace has fast-tracked design of a full-scale prototype that it intends to fly for the first time in 2021, en route to type certification and service entry in 2024.

The Airlander airship is intended for multi-roles including potentially luxury tourism, cargo transportation, and surveillance missions. The largely-composite aircraft has a fabric hull filled with helium and is powered by four diesel engines.

Announcing financial results for the second quarter of 2020, EHang disclosed to analysts that it plans to introduce a longer-range member of its Autonomous Aerial Vehicle family. However, it declined to explain how the increase in range will be achieved and whether its propulsion technology will differ from that employed by its current 216 AAV eVTOL aircraft.

NDB is claiming a breakthrough with a 40 percent charge rate for its nanodiamond batteries and says that a commercially viable prototype could be ready for applications including aviation by the end of 2023.

Proposed new legislation that would ban the U.S. government from buying and using Chinese drones does not specify what weight limits might apply. Depending on how the law would be implemented, it could prove to be an obstacle to China-based eVTOL developers like EHang.

Several private companies, including most recently China's EHang, are supporting the Ambular group to develop concepts for autonomous eVTOLs that can be used for a variety of emergency medical operations.

Urban Aeronautics is developing the CityHawk initially as a hybrid-powered VTOL aircraft to enter service by the end of 2025, but intends to introduce a hydrogen-powered version by 2028.

Xwing's Autoflight System includes detect-and-avoid technology, as well as conntrol software to generate optimal flight paths, interface with ATC, monitor the health of aircraft systems, and deal with operational contingencies.

Austria will be the sixth country in which EHang has conducted, or plans to conduct, flight trials of its two-seat 216 eVTOL aircraft. The others are China, the U.S., Canada, Norway and Spain, and all involve provisional permits issued before any timeline for type certification has been declared.

MTU Aero Engines and Germany's DLR aerospace research group intend to start flight testing a hydrogen-powered version of the Dornier Do228 twin-turboprop aircraft by 2026. The partners aspire to eventually use the technology for larger aircraft like the Airbus A320 airliner family.