FutureFlight

Autonomous flight technology pioneer Xwing has applied for FAA approval to add its experimental Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft to the Part 135 operations certificate of its subsidiary San Antonio Air Charter. The company has converted the turboprop single workhorse to test and certify its optionally piloted systems on commercial cargo services.

Australian advanced air mobility (AAM) group Skyportz has launched what it says is the world’s first crowdfunding investment offer to support its plans to develop the ground infrastructure needed to support commercial eVTOL aircraft operations. The initial offer is open through the end of September 13.

With corporate morale and coffers boosted by its recent flotation on the New York Stock Exchange, Joby Aviation is the most upwardly mobile of the new-aircraft developers tracked by SMG Consulting’s Advanced Air Mobility Reality Index (ARI). Now dripping in SPAC-cash, the California start-up tops the index with an 8.4 rating, with some breathing space between it and second-place Beta Technologies.

Especially in the wake of Covid’s body blow to the air transport industry, it’s an unforgiving world out there among airlines. The prospect of electric aircraft existed before the pandemic, but will commercial operators now see this as a viable part of their medium-term recovery and long-term future?

The voracious appetite of advanced air mobility start-ups for investment shows no signs of being sated, according to a new report from the Lufthansa Innovation Hub. The group’s assessment of venture capital funding across what it defines as the travel and mobility technology (TNMT) sector shows aviation companies grabbing over 50 percent of all investments made in 2020, and then hogging a full 65 percent of cash on the barrel this year.

I thought I was a professional curmudgeon and pessimist until I became reacquainted with the highly entertaining and constructively contrarian analysis of aerospace expert Richard Aboulafia. In his July letter, the Teal Group’s v-p of analysis turns his attention to advanced air mobility (AAM) and how, in his view, it could prove to be every bit as big a wash-out as the damp-squib very light jet (VLJ) air taxi revolution of the 2000s.

Lilium has resumed flight testing of its five-seat eVTOL technology demonstrator as it steps up work to complete the design for the seven-seat Lilium Jet it intends to bring into commercial service by the end of 2024. The aircraft now being flown from the German company’s base near Munich includes design changes incorporated after an earlier demonstrator model was destroyed last year in a fire resulting from thermal runaway following the installation of battery modules.

How will cities and their citizens make clear choices about what they want from urban air mobility (UAM) if no one asks them about it? The answer, says industry group Civata Global, is that they won’t and that a structured process of public engagement from local authorities, communities, regulators, and mobile network operators is urgently needed.

Boeing this week published its 2021 sustainability report. At first glance, the document follows a pretty standard “corporate and social responsibility” format, spelling out how the aerospace giant intends to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem when it comes to aviation’s impact on the environment. Very topically, this year’s report takes particular account of the impact of the Covid pandemic on its business and the markets it serves.

The latest update to SMG Consulting’s thought-provoking Advanced Air Mobility Reality Index adds a pair of new eSTOL manufacturers—Electra and Airflow. Among the eVTOL crowd, the index incorporates only two changes: Archer climbs to sixth place with a 7.2 ranking while Airbus’s CityAirbus moves down to just 4.5, perhaps because it is no more than a technology demonstrator and the European aerospace group remains silent as to whether it will ever bring an eVTOL design to market.