Airship development, fuel cells & more (The Allplane Newsletter #105)

There’s a new podcast episode!

Tom Grundy is the CEO of Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British firm that is working to bring back no less than the airship! Or to be more accurate, a modern take on the airship with modern technology. When it enters production, the Airlander is expected to be a game changer for markets such as air cargo and regional air travel.

LISTEN TO IT HERE.

Sustainable Aviation News

Electric Aviation

magniX is getting into the fuel cell business. By developing hydrogen-powered fuel cells, the firm will be able to provide a full stack of solutions to the new generation of sustainable aircraft makers, starting with its traditional electric motors, which can be powered either by a battery or by a hydrogen-fed fuel cell. This also follows ZeroAvia’s acquisition of fuel cell company HyPoint. LINK.

South Korea’s MintAir is going to work with Dovetail Aviation to convert 10 cargo Cessna Caravans. In this story it is explained how the Korean company is linked to battery producer Mobius, which will provide the battery packs in this deal. LINK.

Advanced Air Mobility

Some details of Textron’s push into the eVTOL space, with a programme called Nexus. Textron has an interesting range of assets in its portfolio that it can deploy to this end, from the Bell helicopter division to its different small aircraft brands and the recently acquired electric flight pioneer Pipistrel. LINK.

Volocopter may still be some way off becoming a mainstream brand, but…did you know it has a merchandise shop? I didn’t! LINK.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

Air France/KLM signed contracts with Neste and DG Fuels to procure SAF. The airline group is aiming to use 10% of SAF in its fuel mix by 2030. This contract covers but a portion of this, though. LINK.

Etihad became the first international airline to load with SAF in Japan (supplied by Itochu and Neste). LINK.

Hydrogen aviation

Universal Hydrogen is preparing to test its H2 capsule system on a real plane, a De Havilland Dash 8-300 turboprop. LINK. An ATR-72 will be next

Btw, earlier this month, American Airlines announced an investment in Universal Hydrogen. LINK.

In Hamburg, a decommissioned former Lufthansa (Germanwings) A320 will serve as a ground laboratory to experiment with the handling and maintenance of hydrogen (H/t to Dirk Grothe for this one!). In the link you will find a detailed explanation of the sort of things that will be tested. This is a joint project of Lufthansa Technik, DLR, ZAL and Hamburg Airport. LINK.

What else in aviation?

Forbes Kazakhstan is reporting that Air Asia plans to launch flights to the Central Asian country from both Malaysia and Thailand (through its Thai subsidiary). And not only that, but it is also considering using 5th Freedom rights to operate then onward flights from Kazakhstan to Europe (London, Paris, Frankfurt and Istanbul being touted as the most likely destinations) [Article is in Russian but Google gives a rather accurate translation] LINK.

Norwegian is planning to base to aircraft at Riga airport and to reopen its base in Barcelona the coming summer season. The base in the Latvian capital will be a direct challenge to home carrier airBaltic, which is, like Norwegian, is currently emerging from a very difficult (financially) past couple of years (btw, not the first time Norwegian sets its sights on Riga). LINK.

Some corporate changes at Etihad. The airline group being transferred to the ADQ soverein wealth fund (Etihad is a fully government-owned entity anyway) and former TAP CEO Antonoaldo Neves will take over from Tony Douglas at the reigns of the airline. LINK.

Alaska Airlines ordered 52 Boeing 737 MAXes. LINK.

And IAG has confirmed an order for an additional 37 A320neos (LINK) and has green-lighted another one for 50 Boeing 737 MAXes. LINK.

3 ex-Iberia A330s are now being converted to A330MRTT tankers to be used by the Spanish Air Force. Interesting. LINK.

NewsletterMiquelOctober 30, 2022Comment