Lilium's Latest Securities and Exchange Commission Filing Seeks To Inspire Patience In Investors
The headline news from Lilium's 20-F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30 is that the company’s plans to bring its seven-seat Lilium Jet eVTOL aircraft into commercial service have slipped from 2024 to 2025. The full extent of the delay hasn't been confirmed as so much hinges on the revised plan to build the first production-conforming prototype and start test flights at some point in 2023.
EASA Publishes First Guidance on Urban Air Mobility Vertiport Design
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency published the world’s first guidance for the design of vertiports needed for the safe operation of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) services such as air taxis in locations across Europe, including in urban areas. The Prototype Technical Design Specifications for Vertiports offers guidance to urban planners, local decision-makers, and industry stakeholders to aid in the design of facilities that will serve VTOL aircraft, including eVTOL vehicles.
Iceberg Short-Selling Report Targets Lilium Mainly over Battery Claims for Ducted Fan eVTOL Design
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.”
New Study Predicts $325 Billion Market Boom for Autonomous Aircraft
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.
Industry Responds to FAA Draft Engineering Brief on Vertiport Design
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.
NTSB Investigators Publish Preliminary Report Into Joby eVTOL Flight Test Accident
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.
Asia Pacific Report Sees Slower Than Expected Start to Urban Air Mobility
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.
Inmarsat, Cranfield University Dissect Connectivity Benefits for Aviation
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.
Dutch Researchers See First Nine-seat Electric Aircraft in Scheduled Service by 2026
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.
Chinese Regulators Adopt Special Conditions for EHang's Autonomous EH216 eVTOL Aircraft
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.