Let’s start, as usual, with the very vibrant sustainable aviation scene:

Bye Aerospace has got a launch customer for its upcoming eFlyer 800 all-electric aircraft: fractional jet group Jet It and its European branch JetClub. This is an operator that was already operating relatively small planes (HondaJet), so, kind of makes sense…

And in France VoltAero has also announced its French launch customer for its Cassio 330 hybrid-electric aircraft: flight training school Airways Aviation. To learn more about this French green flight startup, check out this piece.

Surf Air has published, on its Linkedin corporate profile, this nice, short video about another hybrid-electric aircraft, the EEL, developed by its recently-acquired subsidiary Ampaire.

EVE, Embraer’s urban air mobility arm, has closed a deal with Blade, the helicopter-operator-turned-air-mobility-solutions-provider, to supply eVTOL aircraft in South Florida and the US West Coast starting in 2026. The interesting part of the deal, imo, is the business model. Blade will contract out 60,000 hours of flight to EVE (and its partner companies), who will be responsible for providing the aircraft (60 units in the said markets).

New business models and new technologies that will require a qualified workforce, this is why Cranfield University, the leading UK center for aerospace studies, has launched a new Masters Degree in Advanced Air Mobility Systems. Check it out here.

But…is the public opinion prepared to see eVTOLs hovering over their heads in less than a decade from now? EASA, the European Aerospace Safety agency has conducted a survey.

In the meantime, Lilium has released this close-up video that gives and idea of how its new 7-seater aircraft is going to look like.

This piece by Parker, a technology firm, provides a short but neat summary of the different technologies involved in Advanced Air Mobility

Many of the novel propulsion technologies being developed, such as electric flight, are so far confined to the short haul, small aircraft segment, not the big headline-making jets so far, but even then there is a potential to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint by 17%, according to McKinsey’s figures.

Blast, a startup accelerator in aerospace led by Starburst and other partners, has selected 20 projects (12 startups and 8 research programmes). The reference I found is in French, but you can find the names of the startups in question here. for its next batch of the programme (listen also to the podcast we did with Starburst founder and CEO François Chopard!)

Could Sustainable Aviation Fuel help solve, for good, another environmental issue, that of waste management? This piece by Neste (one of the most active players in the SAF space) provides an optimistic view on the matter…

And now one about contrails, but, no, nothing to do with conspiracy theories! A study by NASA and Germany’s DLR has found that sustainable aviation fuel can reduce ice crystal contrails by 50 to 70%!

Singapore Airlines and its LCC subsidiary Scoot now offer voluntary carbon offsets when booking flights.

What else?

New Icelandic low cost carrier, PLAY, completed its first commercial flight between Reykjavik and London Stansted. Here’s a spotter video that captures the exact moment PLAY’s colourful all-red aircraft touched down at Stansted

One of the most dreadful things at airports is the sometimes multiple queues that passengers have to endure at different points of the journey. But Danish technology firm Copenhagen Optimization is testing a “virtual queue” system that will allow flows at chokepoints to be managed on an appointment basis. Alaska Airlines is testing this system already at Seattle-Tacoma airport.

Virgin Galactic has received FAA approval to fly passengers to space. Apparently this is the first time the FAA has licensed a “spaceline” to engage in such activities. This follows a successful test flight last May.

Came across XWing, an interesting startup that aims to automate flying. Now, automation technology already exists (check out for example, my report on Garmin’s Autoland® technology), but it looks like this firm, backed by the founders of Stripe among others, wants to take it a bit further.

More airlines added to the 2021 airlines launch list!

Aviation News Recap (Allplane Newsletter #54)

What else?