Aviation News Recap (Allplane Newsletter #51)
Picture: Joby Aviation
Allplane Podcast: new episode
After a short hiatus due to shifting workloads and several projects competing for attention, there is a new episode of the Allplane podcast and this one deals with a key element of the electric flight revolution: batteries!
Richard Wang, founder and CEO of Cuberg, a Californian startup that is developing a new generation of Lithium Metal batteries to power electric aircraft. In March 2021, Cuberg was acquired by Swedish battery unicorn Northvolt, one of the major players in this space.
We talk with Richard about Cuberg’s technology, what advantages does Li-Metal have over Li-Ion batteries and the overall prospects for battery-powered flight. Listen to it here.
Green Aviation - what’s new?
How cool must it be to unbox a brand new Pipistrel Velis all-electric aircraft? Here are some images of the first of the lot being delivered to Green Aerolease, a French startup that has ordered 50 Pipistrel Velis light electric aircraft to rent them out to flight schools across France.
To learn more about Slovenian electric aircraft maker Pipistrel, check out also the podcast we did with its founder, Ivo Boscarol
By the way, the Royal Danish Air Force is also getting its first Pipistrel Velis!
Luxaviation, an executive aviation group headquartered in Luxembourg, and Lilium, the German eVTOL company, have signed a partnership (I know this story is a few days’ old, but for some reason, I didn’t manage to include it in the previous newsletter!).
This deal opens up interesting opportunities, because so far, a lot of what we have seen in the eVTOL world has come from the industrial/technology side of things, but an important aspect of eVTOL and urban mobility scene that is, in my opinion, no so clearly defined is the operational and customer experience part of the equation.
Is going to fly on one of those vehicles going to be more like taking a taxi? a mini-bus? a plane?
Read the press release here.
And, similarly, there is the no small matter of what infrastructure eVTOLs and other new forms of air mobility are going to use. This is why Joby Aviation has partnered with REEF, a firm that has some 5,000 pieces of real estate across America that could serve as “vertiports” for Joby’s fleets.
Still quite a few open questions in this regard, but interesting to see movements in this space…
Interesting recap and a bit of prospective about electric aviation, by Ernest Arvai at AirInsight
Sustainable Airports and Airlines Department:
Sustainable aviation fuel is now available at London Heathrow airport (LHR). The SAF is made by Finnish company Neste and distributed by Vitol Aviation. Small volumes so far (the equivalent of the fuel needed to fuel 10 short haul flights), but qualitative an important milestone.
NASA’s take on climate-friendly aviation in this twitter thread.
Rising prices for carbon allowances is hitting some European airlines, those that have most of their flights within the EU, such as Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizz, particularly hard, with a doubling of costs.
And Marion Geoffroy Chief Corporate Officer of one of these airlines, Wizz Air, has outlined the carrier’s view about sustainability in this interview.
Alaska Airlines and Boeing are going to fly a Boeing 737-9 as an ecoDemonstrator. The ecoDemonstrator concept is basically that you test a whole set of new, environmentally-friendly technologies, on a specific airframe. Boeing and Etihad recently ran a similar ecoDemonstrator programme on a Boeing 787.
In other airlines news:
The big headline of the week is, of course, the announcement that United Airlines is planning to acquire up to 50 of Boom’s supersonic airliners. Many questions remain, though.
Check out the latest update to the list of new airlines of 2021