It’s Farnborough Air Show week, so this edition of the newsletter is a bit longer than usual and with quite a few big stories in it! (Also, it is not exhaustive, I have picked up the stories that caught my eye, but I am sure I left quite a few interesting ones behind!).

In any case, there we go…!

Electric Aviation

Embraer to work together with Wideroe Zero to develop a new zero-emissions plane in the 19 to 50 seats segment, which is tentatively called “Energia”. LINK

This is interesting in so far Wideroe Zero had been focused on procuring a suitable <19 seat plane for its Norwegian regional network, this is a step up. But not entirely unexpected, since Wideore Zero’s Andreas Aks told us on the podcast that they were preparing for a whole range of projects in sustainable aviation. LISTEN TO IT HERE.

Australian airline REX wants to electrify part of its fleet. Dovetail is involved in this project as well. LINK.

Ampaire’s EEL hybrid flew over 1,000 miles (1,730km) to Oshkosh for next week’s show. LINK.

Pratt and Whitney and Collins Aerospace have got together to jointly research a new hybrid-electric powertrain demonstrator called Scalable Turboelectric Powertrain Technology (STEP-Tech). LINK.

H55, the electric flight startup led by Swiss sustainable aviation pioneer André Borschberg, has signed a deal with CAE and Piper Aircraft to develop a conversion kit for Piper Archer training aircraft. Step by step, electric propulsion is creeping into the pilot training space, one of the suitable applications of this technology. LINK.

Advanced Air Mobility

American Airlines ordered 50 eVTOLs from Vertical Aerospace. LINK.

Pretty much at the same time, it was announced that another 50 of Vertical’s VX-4 are to go to Flyinggroup, a private aviation operator with a fleet of 43 aircraft in Europe. LINK.

Is it a requirement to order eVTOLs in packs of 50? Bristow, a large helicopter operator, has ordered 50 aircraft from Lilium. LINK.

Joby is applying to get a UK certification. LINK.

Lilium making inroads in Scandinavia together with AAP. This compant, which interestingly enough seems to have been focused, so far, in the recruitment and staffing market, intends to purchase 40 eVTOLs from the German manufacturer in order to complement Scandinavia’s existing regional air network. LINK.

EVE showcased the cabin of its eVTOL (well, a mock up to be more exact), at Farnborough. LINK.

Supernal, the AAM arm of Hyunday, also showcased its future eVTOL cabin. LINK.

Back to EVE, because it got a Letter of Intent from BAE Systems, which plans to explore potential military applications for the eVTOLs. LINK.

A consortium to test advanced air mobility has been formed in the UK, comprising Vertical Aerospace, Virgin Atlantic, Atkins, Skyports, NATS, EVE and Heathrow, Bristol and London City airports. The project is funded with 9.5M GBP from the British government’s Future Flight Challenge. LINK.

Hydrogen Aviation

A flurry of activity for ZeroAvia, so many news that I created this specific article to try to summarize them all! LINK.

Rolls-Royce is working on a hydrogen turbine. LINK.

H2FLY, which it was recently revealed had been acquired by Joby, is preparing to test also liquid hydrogen (until now it was using H2 in gaseous state), which will double the range of its experimental aircraft. LINK.

Universal Hydrogen sold 20 retrofit kits to Canadian regional aircraft operator Avmax, which may use them on either ATR-72s or Dash-8s. LINK.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)

BP to produce SAF in Western Australia. This is the second SAF project announced down under in as many weeks (lots of activity after a late start of sorts!) LINK.

Boeing to work with Alder Fuels, which makes SAF out of sustainable forestry and agricultural residues, in order to scale up SAF production. LINK.

Boeing has got a pretty hectic show start at Farnborough. One of the initiatives is that it will become a partner at an Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) of Sheffield University, in the UK, a center that researches ways to scale up SAF use. LINK.

The Mercedes F1 team will be using SAF. I actually wrote about how the different F1 teams fly on this recent piece for The Points Guy.

Embraer will work with Brazilian group Raízen to develop SAF production in Brazil. The OEM will also become the first customer of this venture. LINK.

Austrian Airlines will offer a round-trip ticket from Vienna City Center to Vienna Airport on the City Airport Train (CAT) and a free ticket for the Venice Biennale Arte 2022 to those passengers that opt in to purchase 100% SAF when booking Vienna-Venice flights. LINK.

Other interesting stuff in sustainable aviation

The UK government outlined its Jet Zero strategy. LINK.

EmbraerX, the innovation arm of the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, is opening a new office in The Netherlands, at the campus of TU Delft, one of Europe’s top polytechnic universities. Embraer’s European HQ was already in Holland. LINK.

Boeing has presented a data modeling tool that should help operators in the industry optimize their decarbonization choices upon consideration of all possible paths available. LINK.

A summary of the different aerospace projects that have received funds from the UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute Programme. LINK.

A really strong group of airlines (Air Canada, Air France-KLM, easyJet, IAG, LATAM, Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic) plus Airbus have signed letters of intent to get carbon credits from direct carbon removal and storage projects. Basically they would finance the work that some entrepreneurs are doing to remove carbon directly from the air and inject it to some cavity or storage place underground. LINK.

Airbus will test an open fan engine on an A380. This will be quite a sight! LINK.

What else in aviation?

Like at every major air show, the major OEMs have been racking orders at Farnborough:

Boeing started strong with a, not totally unexpected, order from Delta: 130 Boeing 737-10 MAX. LINK.

Qatar Airways ordered 25 B737 MAX-10s. I guess with the Airbus dispute still going on, there aren’t many options left for QR to procure new aircraft. LINK.

777 Partners ordered 66 B737 MAXes. 777 Partners is a key investor in Flair and Bonza, new LCCs in Canada and Australia respectively. LINK.

Cargolux selected the B777-8 as future replacement for its B747 fleet. There’s potential for a big prder here, since the Luxembourg based freight operator currently has 30 Jumbos in its fleet. LINK.

Airbus is getting TAAG, the Angolan flag carrier, to replace B737-700s with A220s and Delta ordered 12 additional A220s (bringing its total on order to 107).

Easyjet confirmed an order for 56 A320neos and LATAM for 17 A321neos.

Embraer also received orders from Alaska Airlines (8 E175s) and Porter (10 E195s). LINK.

And a new lessor, Ireland-based Abelo, made its debut with a 20-strong ATR order. LINK.

HAV has announced the Airlander 50, an airship that will be able to carry up to 60 tons. It seems that one of its first missions will be to transport fruit in West Africa. LINK.

Boom Supersonic presented a revised design and an alliance with Northrop Grumman, which should open the doors to contracts with the US military and government services. LINK.

Those fortunate enough to fly Air France first and business class on long haul will get to enjoy Michelin-starred food. LINK.

New article on The Points Guy: did you know that there is a civilian version of the iconic and versatile C-130 Hercules? It is called L-100 and, its latest iteration, rebranded as LM-100J is still in production! Check out where and how these civilian SuperHercules are operating. LINK.

The Allplane Newsletter #95 - Farnborough Edition