Big news for Joby, HeartAerospace & others (The Allplane Newsletter #102)
First of all: there’s a new podcast episode!
Airline pilot and entrepreneur Alon Pereg, shares some insights about aerophobia, the fear of flying and how widespread is this issue.
Alon is helping people overcome it with the Simplifly App he launched.
Sustainable Aviation News
Electric Aviation
United Airlines shared some details of how it intends to deploy its future fleet of Heart Aerospace ES-30 electric aircraft. Chicago O’Hare and Denver International are expected to be focus cities for the carrier’s electric fleet, which will then cover destinations within a 200 mile radius, with the expectation that this will expand to 300 miles or more as batteries get better. LINK.
Heart Aerospace closed another deal in Portugal, with Sevenair ordering six ES-30s. The deal was announced during the Portugal Air Summit. LINK.
Canada Post has unveiled a new postal stamp dedicated to the DHC-2 Beaver. Why I mention this here? Because, despite being a 1946 design, this aircraft type, in its eBeaver version and thanks to the efforts of Harbour Air, magniX and other sustainable flight pioneers, is at the forefront of the electric aircraft revolution. LINK.
Surf Air Mobility got financing to the tune of $450M from leasing company Jetstream Aviation Services. With this money, it plans to renew and grow its fleet of Cessna Caravan and Pilatus PC-12 aircraft, but also, quite interestingly, obtain up to 250 hybrid or fully electric powertrains for its fleet (that is, provided that they get the proper certifications). LINK.
Advanced Air Mobility
Big news this week with the announcement that Delta Airlines is investing $60M in Joby Aviation (with an additional $140M as potential follow up investment if certain KPIs are met). What’s more, both companies enter into a mutually exclusive agreement to develop home-to-airport services in the near future (although details of the latter are a bit more sketchy). LINK.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Turkish Airlines signed the Global Sustainable Fuel Declaration, promoted by Rolls-Royce and Airbus. The airline is also collaborating with research projects in Turkey to make biofuels out of micro-algae. LINK.
Hydrogen aviation
What’s the state of the hydrogen economy at airports around the World? Here is a visualization by aviation consultancy firm To70 Aviation. LINK.
Other interesting stories in sustainable aviation
Alaska Airlines has been using software made by a Seattle-based startup called Airspace Intelligence in order to save 2.7 minutes on average per flight (or 6,866 metric tons of CO2) through planning smarter flightpaths. LINK.
This is a field that, while less eye-catching than electric planes or hydrogen propulsion, is seeing quite a lot of activity, with other players such as Open Airlines (whose founder was here on the podcast) and SITA for Aircraft (also on the podcast!) offering also software packages that help airlines optimize their movements.
In a similar way Delta Airlines is collaborating with researchers at MIT to find ways to avoid contrail formation and their potential climate effects by implementing small re-routings of aircraft thanks to the use of predictive techniques. LINK.
AirInsight reports that Deutsche Aircraft has found a partner to market its Do328eco aircraft (a version of the aircraft of the same name with added sustainability enhancing technologies). Leasing company ACIA Aero Leasing will be placing the aircraft in both its passenger and, interestingly, firefighting configurations. LINK.
ANA’s “Green Jet”, a Dreamliner showcasing different efficiency-boosting technologies and sporting a special green livery, is already operating. Here it is seen landing at San Francisco International airport. LINK.
Swiss has effectively deployed AeroSHARK technology on its fleet. AeroSHARK is a special film that, when applied on top of the fuselage and engine nacelles, mimics the hydrodynamic skin of a shark in order to reduce drag (and save fuel and emissions). The first plane to feature this innovation was a Boeing 777-300ER which flew between Zurich and Miami. AeroSHARK was developed by Lufthansa Technik and German chemicals producer BASF. LINK.
What else in aviation?
Flexjet is to become a public company via SPAC, at a valuation of some $3.1B. LINK.
Japan Airlines has a special microsite that helps you find the best seat onboard to be able to get the best panoramic views of Mount Fuji! (kudos to Seth Miller, of PaxEx.aero for spotting this!). Very cool!
Airbus is auctioning off parts and pieces of an A380 aircraft. LINK.
The ICAO assembly endorsed the Saudi proposal for an harmonised travel requirements policy. LINK. We had one of the consultants that was directly involved in its drafting, Jean-Marc Bourreau, explaining the details here on the podcast just a few days ago!