News from the Singapore Air Show & much more (The Allplane Newsletter #77)
There’s a new podcast episode of our podcast!
The status and prospects of battery science for aviation, with Venkat Viswanathan, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the leading researchers in this field. LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE for an update on the most promising battery technologies for electric aviation.
Sustainable Aviation News
The Singapore Air Show taking place this week was not without its share of advanced air mobility news:
Avolon is placing with AirAsia 100 of the Vertical Aerospace VX4 it has on its books. We even got some nice renderings of the eVTOLs in the airline’s red livery. LINK.
Embraer’s EVE has expanded its (future) Australian footprint with a 50-strong order from Aviair and Helispirit in Western Australia and another one from Microflite to deploy 40 aircraft to Melbourne.
Bold predictions for the AAM industry in this report by Rolls-Royce and consultancy firm Roland Berger. Predicts some 82,500 AAM aircraft in the Asia-Pac region alone by 2050. LINK.
One of the places that may see early AAM adoption is Singapore. Volocopter expects to have 6 bases and generate 1,300 jobs in the city state by 2030. Here’s a report they published about this.
And a couple of AAM stories about Japan:
Joby Aviation is joining forces with All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Toyota, to bring flying taxis to the country. LINK.
By the way, Joby lost an aircraft in an accident during testing in California this week. No one was injured. LINK.
Embraer EVE and Skyports to collaborate with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau as well as Japan Airlines and the Kanematsu Corporation to develop a shared vision for AAM operations in Japan. LINK.
When talking about advanced air mobility, German company Henkel, most well known for consumer chemicals such as glue and detergents, doesn’t usually come to mind, but apparently several of their products are used in AAM aircraft and they want you to know. They have published this nice infographic about the materials that go into an AAM aircraft. LINK.
Wideroe Zero, the green flight branch of the Norwegian airline (check the podcast we did with its head, Andreas Aks, in case you haven’t done so!) is partnering with Embraer and Rolls-Royce to study new concepts in sustainable regional aircraft. All three companies were already partners in a number of projects in Norway and Wideroe has some of the most concrete plans in this space already. Let’s see what comes out of this. LINK.
More Rolls-Royce news, because the British firm will be supporting and servicing Luxaviation’s future AAM infrastructure. Luxembourg-based executive aircraft operator Luxaviation (see our podcast with its former CEO here) is planning to operate Lillium aircraft as soon as they become available. LINK.
Eviation’s CEO, Omer Bar-Yohay, is out, just as the company prepares for the first flight of its Alice all-electric aircraft. LINK.
Airbus to announced a hydrogen-powered demonstrator soon? LINK.
LanzaJet and Marquis Sustainable Aviation Fuel to build a plant to produce 120M gallons of Alcohol-to-jet SAF in Illinois. LINK.
ATR has successfully tested 100% SAF flights on its turboprops. LINK.
Norwegian has launched its own SAF purchase programme for corporate customers. LINK.
Icelandair to cooperate with the national energy company Landsvirkjun with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% (vs 2019) by 2030. LINK.
What else in aviation?
I published two pieces on The Points Guy:
What does it take to design a great airline livery? I spoke with those involved in new livery design at Northern Pacific Airways and Icelandair and I got some insights from the designer of amazing fantasy liveries at La Livery. READ IT HERE.
The Emirates A380 onboard bar is back! I have a look at the different inflight bars that exist at airlines around the world…READ IT HERE.
Qatar Airways has a retro livery scheme on a Boeing 777 (the ongoing dispute with Airbus over paint issues didn’t prevent it from getting it painted in Tolouse apparently)
And talking about liveries, Alaska Airlines used a new 3D printing tech to get its latest “orca” livery on a Boeing 737 to beautiful results. LINK.
By the way, Alaska Airlines has launched a subscription service. allowing passengers to pay for bundles of flights at a discounted rate (wit varying degrees of flexibility depending on the price of the package). This is powered by tech developed by Barcelona-based Caravelo. LINK.
Virgin Galactic starts taking bookings. If you have $450,000 to spare, you can now book your trip into orbit. LINK.