Fresh capital flowing into eVTOLs & much more (The Allplane Newsletter #171)
Electric aviation
Elektra Solar got type certification for its Elektra Trainer. This was the aircraft that participated in the e-Flight Challenge in the summer of 2023, pitching the aircraft against a Lucid Motors electric car across Germany.
Advanced Air Mobility
Interesting to see how, days after Lilium’s future came under question, a number of new funding deals have been announced by the leading eVTOL developers:
Mudrick Capital invested $200M in Vertical Aerospace convertible notes and becomes one of the major investors in the British eVTOL startup.
BETA Technologies closed a $318M Series C round led by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and other existing investors.
EVE got a $50M loan from Citibank.
In this regard, here is a rather bearish assessment on Vertical Aerospace’s chances.
And, btw, Joby has shared some amazing footage of its eVTOL flying in Japan, with a snowless Mt. Fuji in the background.
Hydrogen Aviation
French startup Beyond Aero raised €20M to continue developing its hydrogen-powered business aircraft. This brings the total raised to €44M.
Some interesting details about MTU Aero Engines ambitious hydrogen propulsion program.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
A bunch of airlines, airports and other companies in the sustainable aviation space have got together to launch Project SkyPower to accelerate the adoption of synthetic sustainable aviation fuels (e-SAF) in Europe. You can check out this initiative’s website here.
Airbus will be collaborating with two airlines, Wizz Air and EVA Air, in order to introduce the use of SAF into their respective operations. Of the two, the Wizz Air plan sounds more specific, with specific SAF quantities already assigned for use on flight between Budapest and Barcelona and Charleroi, Belgium. In what concerns the Taiwanese carrier, the two companies said they are going to “evaluate” the options.
Other sustainable aviation stories
Finnair has updated its decarbonization target as per the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The Finnish carrier intends to reduce its carbon footprint by 34.5% by 2033 vs its 2023 levels, an absolute reduction of 13%.
REGENT has its first customer, United Marine Egypt (UME), for the Monarch model, the largest of the wing-in-ground vehicles it is designing (50-100 passengers as opposed to the 12 passengers of the smaller Viceroy model.
An article by Nico Buchholz, a well known name in German and European aviation, calling on Boeing and Airbus to develop a new clean-sheet wide-body aircraft.
SWISS is recycling the materials from old aircraft to make furniture and fashion accessories, as explained in this video:
Other interesting aviation stories
Air France may be interested in acquiring TAP Air Portugal.
Brazil has launched a massive airport upgrade program, with 130 airports throughout the country being either built or upgraded.
IndiGo received the first A321neo fitted with the premium IndiGoStretch product.