FutureFlight

Each organizations chosen by the U.S. Air Force's Afwerx unit for phase one research and development contracts will receive $150,000. They will be eligible to be considered for phase two contracts as part of the wider Agility Prime program, worth between $750,000 and $1.5 million.

On October 28, the Canadian Advanced Air Mobility (CAAM) Consortium held its global launch event, ushering in what its organizers hope will be a new era of flight in the Great White North. Twenty stakeholders from industry, academia, and local community groups are involved in the new group.

Pal-V has secured European approval for road operation of its flying car, the Liberty, following an extensive drive test program conducted since February that included high-speed ovals, brake, and emission tests, as well as noise-pollution testing. The company is now eyeing EASA certification for flight in 2022.

The new Unmanned Civil Aviation Experimental Zones will give China's autonomous aviation industry more opportunity to develop technology and early operations across 13 Chinese cities.

Through a partnership with Lufthansa Industry Solutions, Volocopter is building a software platform, VololQ, that will run on the Microsoft Azure cloud-based service to manage the entire ecosystem of its planned UAM network. The platform would connect the various facets of a UAM network, from the local authorities to the transportation providers, flight and ground operations, and customer services.

Around $10 million will be available through a new tranche of government-backed funding via the Aerospace Technology Institute starting in early 2021. This is part of a much wider set of funding opportunities to support moves towards zero-carbon-emissions aviation.

Uber Elevate head Eric Allison provided an update on the group's plans to launch ride-hailing services with eVTOL aircraft during Invest in Bavaria's Urban Air Mobility 2020 conference. He said the company does not expect disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic to delay its plans to begin operations during 2023.

Denmark-based Falck says it is setting up initial test operations with an unnamed "technical partner" to use manned eVTOL aircraft for emergency response work. The company has 25,000 employees in 30 countries.

Safety, noise, and economics are among some of the key challenges in developing an infrastructure for urban air mobility, according to a panel of experts speaking at a session on infrastructure at Invest in Bavaria's recent Urban Air Mobility 2020: Future of Aerial Transport & Logistics conference.

Jaunt Air Mobility, PS&S, and Price Systems are joining efforts to prepare the growing urban air mobility (UAM) industry for flight operations with customers on board. PS&S is an architectural firm and Price Systems is a cost-estimation technology company.