FutureFlight

Reliable Robotics and its new Europe-based partner ASL Aviation Holdings plan to select a twin-turboprop aircraft to convert for remotely-operated freight services under supplemental type certificates. They will engage with prospective airline customers for the technology and also with international air safety regulators, such as EASA, building on the work Reliable Robotics is already doing with the FAA.

Italian aerospace components specialist Avio Aero is now involved in multiple European research and development projects aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions from air transport. The Amber hybrid-electric technology demonstrator project has $34 million in European Commission funding for work in the next four years that will support wider efforts to bring a new or converted regional airliner to market.

Air New Zealand, which recently announced its ambition to bring zero-emissions flights to its home country by 2026, has selected four major partners for the new program, called Mission Next Generation Aircraft. This week, the carrier confirmed that Eviation, Beta Technologies, VoltAero, and Cranfield Aerospace—all companies working on electric, hybrid, or hydrogen-powered aircraft—will support its efforts to demonstrate the viability of reducing carbon emissions.

The FAA has successfully completed a critical systems review for Joby Aviation’s eVTOL, bringing the aircraft one step closer to achieving type certification, the company announced on December 14. According to Joby, the FAA conducted an in-person, multi-day audit of Joby’s eVTOL at the company’s facilities in Marina, California, to complete the second of four systems reviews required for its type certification program. 

Boom, the U.S. start-up working on ambitious plans to bring a supersonic airliner into commercial service by the end of this decade, says it will develop its own engine for the Overture program with a team of engine designers, an additive manufacturer, and a turbine engine maintenance specialist.

Airbus’s Acubed innovation center this week rolled out the latest version of a simulation tool that it says will help support the integration of uncrewed aircraft into controlled airspace.

Hybrid-electric aircraft developer Ampaire has received $150,000 in funding from NASA for its High Efficiency Powertrain for Hybrid Aircraft (HEPHA) project, the company announced on December 9. The Phase 1 award from NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program will help to fund the “sizing, architecture and other analytical studies” for Ampaire’s hybrid-electric powertrain over the next six months, the company said in a statement. 

Eve Air Mobility, an eVTOL aircraft maker backed by the major Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer, announced on Thursday that it has signed a letter of intent with the advanced air mobility start-up FlyBIS to develop eVTOL operations in South America. As part of the deal, FlyBIS has provisionally agreed to purchase up to 40 of Eve’s eVTOL aircraft. 

Embraer has sharpened the early focus for its Energia future aircraft program to a hybrid-electric concept and a hydrogen fuel-cell platform in its contribution to the industry’s effort to reach carbon-neutral operation by 2050.

California-based eVTOL developer Joby Aviation has partnered with New York City’s Aviation High School to help prepare the next generation of aircraft engineers for “the electric age of flight."