Blended-wing-bodies, lots of eVTOL stuff & more (The Allplane Newsletter #146)
Natilus Kona
Here’s a new edition of our regular aviation news. The last couple of weeks have been really packed with advanced air mobility stories, but there’s a bit of everything…including one new episode of the podcast with a truly inspiring entrepreneur!
Aleksey Matyushev, founder and CEO of Natilus, a Californian startup developing a family of blended-wing-body (BWB) autonomous aircraft shares his vision about the future of air freight. LISTEN.
Electric Aviation
Heart Aerospace closed a $107M Series B funding round. Read more about who’s involved here.
Eviation has a new CEO, Andre Stein, who until now had the top role at EVE. To learn more about Eviation check out the podcast we did with its previous CEO.
Cormorant Seaplanes, a Dutch developer of electric seaplanes, moved to Teuge airfield, in the central Netherlands and offered the chance to see a bit of the airframe in this video. Teuge has become a hub for the Dutch electric aviation industry and it has also Electron among the companies based there.
A research paper that looked at the environmental impact of a two-seater battery-powered Pipistrel Velis Electro vs. an equivalent fossil-fuelled aircraft. Researchers looked at the impact of the materials used to make the airframe and the battery in addition to the lifecycle, including usage and end-of-life (recycling). The conclusion is that with enough utilization rates, the electric aircraft has less impact, although it recommends further investment in batteries and materials in order to lower even more the impact (which can be significant for low usage rates). READ.
Advanced Air Mobility
News in the fascinating personal eVTOL segment. Pivotal, formerly known as Opener (Blackfly), has started selling its $190k apiece Helix.
EVE is collaborating with Korean LCC Jeju Air in elaborating a Concept for Operations (CONOPS) for Jeju island, which is one of Asia’s top tourist destinations.
Joby is installing the first eVTOL charger in the NYC area, actually just on the other side of the river in New Jersey, while Beta Technologies is doing the same in Alabama.
Beta Technologies also completed its first 3-month testing deployment with the military, as part of the AFWERX technology evaluation programme. The Alia eCTOL aircraft performed simulated missions, such as providing forward pick-up of medical casualties, relieving a UH-60 helicopter part of the way, and delivering spares to a deployed unit, replacing ground transportation options. In both scenarios it saved several hours of time and reduced energy costs significantly (in the case of the helicopter subsitution, cutting the cost from $1,600 to just $5!). READ.
Overair has released some details of its Butterfly eVTOL cabin.
Archer completed the first stage of its flight testing programme.
MightyFly presented the latest version of its autonomous hybrid cargo eVTOL.
Interesting and very personal interview on Flying Mag, with JoeBen Bevirt, founder of Joby Aviation.
Vertical Aerospace’s founder, Stephen Fitzpatrick, has injected another $50 million in the company to give it a bit of a longer runway to get to certification.
And here is super interesting interview, this one with David Shilliday, VP and general manager for advanced air mobility at Honeywell. There is a lot of media attention around the companies developing eVTOLs, but quite a few of them rely on Honeywell technology to work and perform critical functions!
Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Lanzajet opened its flagship Georgia plant and has also partnered with the Indian Oil Corporation to launch India’s first ethanol-to-SAF plant.
Topsoe and Sasol have found the person to lead their SAF joint venture, the current president of Shell Aviation, Jan Toschka. And the Danish company will also supply technology to Sweden’s energy firm Preem to produce SAF (and diesel) at a refinery in Western Sweden.
Ryanair is sourcing 100,000 tons of SAF from Eni for its operations in Italy.
Hydrogen Aviation
Airbus, Avinor, SAS, Swedavia and Vattenfall have partnered to explore the further development of the hydrogen ecosystem for aviation in Scandinavia.
ZeroAvia is partnering with German startup flyv, which wants to develop an on-demand air service network throughout Europe. It is not clear what this collaboration is going to entail, though, at the moment flyv exists on paper basically. Check out the podcast episode we did with one of flyv’s founders.
What else in aviation?
An interview with PLAY Airlines CEO, Birgir Jónsson, providing all sorts of insights about this interesting and growing Icelandic low cost carrier.
Very interesting, long piece by one of the top aviation journalists out there, Dominic Gates, at the Seattle Times, about the Boeing-Airbus rivalry and the dire straits the American manufacturer finds itself into.
SAS has turned its last B737-700 (it retired the type from commercial service last November) into a flying ambulance to evacuate war casualties from Ukraine and transport them to European hospitals.
A look at the state of the Passenger to Freight (P2F) market.
Has Amelia Earhart’s plane been found?