FutureFlight

Pratt & Whitney and Collins join the Boeing/NASA X-66A Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project; plus Volocopter's eVTOL set to fly at NBAA-BACE business aviation show; VoltAero starts building hybrid-electric aircraft factory; Australia's Torres Strait Air commits to hydrogen-powered Islanders; the Choctaw Nation wants advanced air mobility in Oklahoma; EASA signs off on Aura Aero's manufacturing approval.

Australian advanced air mobility group Skyportz has released a concept for a waterfront vertiport and “e-mobility hub” that it hopes to build in Melbourne, Australia. Skyportz CEO Clem Newton-Brown presented the concept on Tuesday at the Airtaxi World Congress in San Francisco. 

Having completed more than 1,000 remotely piloted flight tests with its eVTOL prototypes over the past 10 years, Joby Aviation has successfully flown its electric air taxi with pilots on board for the first time. Joby announced today that four pilots have now flown the company’s preproduction prototype outside its testing facility in Marina, California. 

Reliable Robotics this week published initial findings from its ongoing joint study with the U.S. Air Force into the potential for its technology to automate operations of large aircraft, such as the KC-135 Stratotanker, which is used for air-to-air refueling. The California-based system is working on military and civil applications for its Remotely Operated Aircraft System (ROAS), which is based on continuous engagement of the autopilot.

Regulators from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the FAA, EASA, and Singapore appeared on a panel to discuss how a robust foundation can be established for new eVTOL aircraft. There were calls for the pace of engagement and collaboration with industry innovators to be stepped up.

Beta Technologies has opened a manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont, where it will build its electric aircraft. The company expects to have the capacity to assemble 300 aircraft each year in a 188,500-sq-ft facility that it says has been designed to operate with net zero carbon emissions.

The potential for new advanced air mobility (AAM) services to transform public transportation networks in Asia was the focus of last week’s Global Urban & Advanced Air Summit in Singapore. Top of the first day’s agenda was a presentation by Hui Ling Teo, a partner at the Singapore branch of Reed Smith law firm, underscoring the critical need for what she described as climate-resilient infrastructure in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

EHang has delivered five of its EH216-S autonomous aerial vehicles to a new customer, Shenzhen Boling Holding Group, which plans to use the two-seat aircraft for sightseeing tours in the vast city of Shenzhen in China's Guangdong province. 

This week, eVTOL aircraft developers Joby Aviation and Eve Air Mobility firmed up their plans to participate in South Korea's K-UAM Grand Challenge initiative to advance the introduction of air mobility services in its cities. Incheon, the site of the main airport for the capital, Seoul, is one of the cities expected to be an early adopter as its aviation director, Kwang-ho An, told the Global Urban & Advanced Air Summit in Singapore.

Vermont-based electric aircraft developer Beta Technologies flew its Alia prototype into Montréal on September 27. According to Beta, this was the first time an all-electric aircraft crossed an international border and the first time one landed in Montréal. The company is developing both vertical and conventional takeoff and landing versions of the aircraft.