FutureFlight

Last month EHang won the race to be the first eVTOL aircraft manufacturer to achieve type certification when the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) signed off on the airworthiness of its two-seat autonomous EH216-S vehicle.

Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences has revealed a high-speed, vertical-takeoff-and-landing (HSVTOL) X-plane concept that it is developing for DARPA's Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) program. DARPA recently awarded Phase 1 contracts to four teams—from Aurora, Bell, Piasecki, and Northrop Grumman—who will compete for a contract to build and fly an experimental VTOL aircraft with a cruise speed of at least 400 knots.

Falcon Aviation Teams with AutoFlight for eVTOL Services in the Middle East and Africa

Joby Wins Government Grant to Support California Expansion

The state of California has awarded Joby Aviation a $9.8 million CalCompetes grant to support the company’s expansion in the Golden State. Joby said the funding will support a “significant expansion” of the company’s flight testing and pilot production facilities in Marina, California, and help to create 690 full-time jobs across its California locations by 2027. 

Piasecki Aircraft Corp. has received a $37 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to fund the development of its Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES) tilt-duct VTOL aircraft and hydrogen fuel cell propulsion technologies. The company says it is on track to begin flight testing with an ARES subscale technology demonstrator by the end of this year. Meanwhile, it is also working with ZeroAvia to develop the first zero-emission, hydrogen-powered compound helicopter, called the PA-890.

Electra.aero is using the two-seat EL-2 Goldfinch as a subscale technology demonstrator for its planned nine-passenger, hybrid-electric short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. Test flights started earlier this month as the company works towards a type certification goal in 2028.

As part of this week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum held in San Francisco, the U.S. Export-Import Bank signed off on a loan to support Beta Technologies' efforts to get orders for its eVTOL and eSTOL aircraft. The funding will support the expansion of its manufacturing facility in Vermont.

The Japanese airline and its engineering division will work with Universal Hydrogen and H2Fly to explore the potential for decarbonizing part of the carrier's regional fleets with hydrogen-electric powertrains. The airline has yet to sign orders for the retrofit kits being developed but has confirmed that hydrogen is part of its strategy to achieve net zero carbon status by 2050.

Elroy Air’s autonomous eVTOL cargo aircraft has flown for the first time, the California-based aircraft developer announced on November 16.  The hybrid-electric Chaparral C1 prototype performed its inaugural flight on November 12, taking off vertically from the company’s flight test operations center at Byron Airport, just east of San Francisco. It successfully landed without incident after a 57-second hover flight. 

Air Chateau International, a private helicopter operator in the UAE, intends to purchase up to 100 Midnight eVTOL aircraft from Archer Aviation in a deal worth $500 million. In a memorandum of understanding signed at the Dubai Airshow on November 16, Air Chateau agreed to send Archer a nonrefundable pre-delivery payment of $1 million by the end of December.