FutureFlight

Not for the first time, a prominent eVTOL aircraft developer has become the target of a short-selling report aimed at undermining its credibility with investors. Back in February 2021, Wolfpack Research triggered an acrimonious dispute (and apparently unresolved lawsuit) when it challenged China’s EHang. Just over 12 months later, on March 14, Iceberg Research published a report arguing that Germany’s Lilium is “the losing horse in the eVTOL race.”

Forecasters expect spending on the autonomous aircraft market to expand at a nearly 25 percent annual growth rate and reach $325 billion over the next two decades, as industries related to such activities as agriculture, firefighting, and telecommunications increasingly recognize the value of its applications, according to a report released on March 16  by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and management consultants Avascent.

Around 100 industry stakeholders gathered this week at Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo show in Dallas to review and comment on the FAA’s recently released draft engineering brief for a vertiport and vertistop design standard. The brief will eventually produce an FAA advisory circular for vertiports.

On March 8, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the February 16 accident involving the first of Joby's two full-scale prototype eVTOLs (tail number N542AJ)  near Jolson, California. In a basic summary of confirmed facts, it says that at 9.58 a.m. the aircraft (designated JAS4-2) experienced an unspecified component failure over an uninhabited area during remotely piloted flight testing.

Over a third of 500 respondents to a survey commissioned by Asian Sky Media for its first Asia-Pacific Urban Air Mobility report remain unconvinced that the new sector will become commercialized within the next five years, as many eVTOL aircraft developers are predicting. What's more, only 27 percent said they “fully trust” regulators to make the right decisions.

Satellite communications group Inmarsat and Cranfield University this week published a report that explores how so-called digital connectivity will revolutionize aviation in the next decade, fueled largely by the aviation leaders’ changes in priorities brought on my sustainability and passenger behavior since the start of the Covid pandemic.

A study recently presented by Dutch researchers NACO/Royal HaskoningDHV and Royal NLR to the Netherlands’s House of Representatives concluded that the first nine-passenger electric aircraft could reach the short-haul AAM market by 2026, with the potential for larger 19-seaters to follow. The Netherlands has set a goal to fully electrify short-haul scheduled air services by 2050.

On February 23, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced that it has formally adopted the special conditions for the type certification of EHang's EH216 "autonomous aerial vehicle." The publication of the conditions, which have been in effect since February 9, should clear the way for the Chinese manufacturer to advance to the next stage of type certification work.

Aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and transportation consultants Roland Berger this week released a report that predicts the advanced air mobility (AAM) market in the Asia Pacific region will be worth $36.9 billion in annual revenues by 2050. The report, released during the Singapore Airshow, is mainly based on the anticipated adoption of eVTOL aircraft for urban and regional air mobility services, including airport shuttles and intercity connections of up to 250 km (155 miles).

Adopting urban air mobility (UAM) could generate S$4.18 billion ($3.1 billion) in accumulative benefits to the Singapore economy by 2030, according to a new report published by eVTOL aircraft developer Volocopter. The Singapore Roadmap proposes an initial network of four to six vertiports to support tourist flights over locations such as Marina Bay and Sentosa.