FutureFlight

Lilium has announced its first purchase agreement with a Chinese operator, as well as plans to open a regional headquarters in China. Chinese business aircraft operator and helicopter service provider Shenzhen East General Aviation (Heli-Eastern) has agreed to purchase 100 Lilium Jet eVTOL aircraft, which it intends to operate throughout China’s heavily populated Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The Cassio 330 hybrid-electric, fixed-wing aircraft is the first of three models under development by French company VoltAero. The company is using a 165-kilowatt engine supplied by its strategic investor Kawasaki Motors, and Akira Technologies is helping with other aspects of the propulsion system.

At least 11 eVTOL aircraft developers are exhibiting at this week's Paris Air Show, raising the profile of the new advanced air mobility sector on the international stage. Those present included Archer, Ascendance Flight Technologies, AutoFlight, Eve, EHang, Joby, Lilium, Overair, Supernal, Volocopter, and Wisk Aero.

Swiss eVTOL aircraft developer Dufour Aerospace released the final design for its Aero 2 cargo drone today after successfully flying its third-generation prototype for the first time. The prototype, which Dufour calls the X2.2, made its first short hover flights at Dübendorf airfield near Zurich last week. 

Japan-based urban planner SkyScape says vertiport developers need to focus on making networks of eVTOL aircraft landing sites as effective as possible, while also ensuring that the infrastructure and air services they support deliver tangible benefits to communities.

Conscious Aerospace says that 90 percent of regional airline routes could be served more competitively and with true zero-carbon emissions using aircraft converted to run on its liquid hydrogen propulsion system. The Dutch company has started work with De Havilland Aircraft of Canada on plans to have converted Dash 8-300 twin turboprops in service by 2028.

United Airlines, which holds provisional orders for up to 200 of Eve Air Mobility's four-passenger eVTOL aircraft, is working with the manufacturer to launch air taxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area. That's close to where rival eVTOL developer Archer is based, and United is also a prospective customer for its aircraft with plans to operate in New York and Chicago.

Paris Air Show Will Put eVTOL Aircraft Set To Star on World Stage

After a three-year development program, Italian airframer Tecnam and aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce have determined that current battery technology is insufficient to support commercially viable operations with an all-electric aircraft. The partners indicated that the limitations of battery life and operating costs associated with these were the main reasons they stopped working on the nine-passenger P-Volt aircraft.

Whisper Aero has lifted the curtains on a new aircraft concept known as the Whisper Jet, which utilizes the company’s next-generation, ultraquiet propulsion system. For more than two years, the secretive Tennessee-based start-up has been developing what it claims will be the quietest and most efficient propulsion system on the market.