ZeroAvia behind the scenes, Dubai Al-Maktoum airport & much more (The Allplane Newsletter #148)

 

This edition of the newsletter is quite packed, because it’s been a while since the last one (a mix of professional and personal reasons preventing me from posting more frequent updates), but here it is! Enjoy!

Electric Aviation

I visited Cuberg’s facilities in California just as the Northvolt subsidiary announced a massive management change with the founder, Richard Wand stepping down and Shauna McIntyre taking over as new CEO. READ.

If electric aviation is to be competitive, it will need to improve charging times. A study found that, on a Pipistrel Velis, current charging methods do not even give you, at this time, one hour of flying for an hour of charging.

Ampaire acquired Magpie Aviation. READ. To learn more about Magpie’s truly disruptive concept, check out the podcast episode we did with Magpie’s founders.

Magpie Aviation is also sharing data publicly about the project, with the aim to advance the development of sustainable aviation further.

Michael Barnard, a previous guest of the podcast, has published this piece on Forbes about the promising future of electric aviation.

A battery-powered 100-seat aircraft? this is what Whisper Aero is aiming for.

Aciturri, a Spanish maker of aerostructures is investing in Dovetail, an Australian startup with Spanish founders.

Southwest Airlines is joining Regent’s Hawaii Seaglider Initiative, which is looking at the requirements and conditions to use ground-effect vehicles in inter-island coastal operations. READ.

Advanced Air Mobility

How sustainable is the eVTOL sector? A thought-provoking question that the colleagues at VerticalMag try to answer.

Lilium wants to make of Orlando, Florida, a hub for advanced air mobility in that state. The German company is also preparing for the industrial roll out of its propulsion units, in Q2 2024.

Boeing’s Wisk has a similar project in Sugar Land, Texas, which is part of the Greater Houston area. READ.

Btw, Lilium has also published a nice video about their plans.  

Vertical Aerospace has received additional support from the UK government in the form of a £8M grant from the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), this brings the total of public funds received by the British eVTOL developer to £37M.

Joby completed its third stage of the certification process with the FAA, the first eVTOL developer to get that far.

Should eVTOLs be called “flying cars”? There’s a bit of controversy around this. While most in the industry dislike this term, not least because “flying cars” are a sub-category of the advanced air mobility world. Archer’s CEO wants to use it, though. It can be a bit misleading, although it is also the case that it is a term that enjoys some popularity among the mainstream public.

Another application of drones: Dufour is going to scan the Swiss Alps from the sky.

Lockheed Martin helicopter-making subsidiary Sikorsky is developing its own eVTOL too, called HEX. Interestingly, it is going to be hybrid-electric.

AIR has partnered with Nidec to develop a customized motors for its AIR ONE production eVTOL. READ.

A summary of Archer’s Midnight order book.

AutoFlight completed what they claim is the first inter-city eVTOL flight, covering the 50km between Shenzhen and Zhuhai, in the Pearl River Delta of China.

Is Autoflight to get its certification soon?

Very critical assessment of the eVTOL industry on AirInsight!

Skyports will have a testing/proof-of-concept vertiport in Bicester, near Oxford, in the UK. The facility should be ready by the end of 2024. Check out the podcast episode we did with Addison Ferrell, Director of Infrastructure at Skyports.

Watch this video of 12 automated EHang eVTOLs flying at the same time (h/t Morell Westermann)

Embraer has unveiled a new advanced air mobility concept:

Sustainable Aviation Fuel

Singapore is planning to introduce a levy on all outgoing flights to support the purchase of up to 1% SAF by 2026 and between 3 and 5% by 2030.

What’s interesting here is that 100% of flights in Singapore are international, which is a segment of air travel that has traditionally been difficult to put taxes and mandates on. Also, the fact that apparently this money will support bulk SAF purchases which should be spread out among all carriers operating at SIN, therefore avoiding a comparative disadvantage. The amount of the levy will reportedly be between $3 and $16 per ticket depending on the distance flown. READ.

United Airlines SAF VC fund keeps growing with the addition of new partners.

Southwest Airlines is investing $30M in LanzaJet and aiming to use 10% SAF by 2030.

In addition to acquiring Magpie Aviation, Ampaire is also experimenting with the use of 100% SAF from a Power-to-Liquid source for its hybrid-electric propulsion system.

Hydrogen Aviation

My behind-the-scenes piece for AeroTime about ZeroAvia (yes, I went to visit their Kemble center to see the testbank aircraft from up close!). READ.

By the way, ZeroAvia has also been selected by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to take part in the Hydrogen Challenge, a program to accelerate the use of hydrogen in aviation. READ.

Swiss aviation adventurer Bertrand Piccard is reportedly preparing another of its record-breaking stunts, this time flying a hydrogen-powered aircraft around the world.

Startup Beyond Aero completed France’s first hydrogen-electric flight. The prorotype is named “Blériot” after the famous French aviation pioneer. One to monitor! READ.

First hydrogen trial in New Zealand in an aviation context, although not in the air but on the ground. Air New Zealand, Wellington Airport, Toyota New Zealand, and Hiringa Energy have been testing the use of hydrogen to charge ground electric vehicles. Not sure this is the most efficient use of hydrogen, though, land vehicles can usually be electrified straightaway from renewable sources. READ.

Other sustainable aviation news

Air France-KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic are partnering with EcoVadis to make their whole supply chains more sustainable.  

Embraer-X (the technology incubator of the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer) is partnering with Greentown Labs, a US climate tech incubator. READ.

What else in aviation?

My CNN piece about Dubai’s Al-Maktoum airport. READ.

New long haul routes for Air Asia? Wouldn’t be surprising.

How do Europe’s main three airline groups compare, based on their 2023 financial results? And what about each of the individual airlines within each group? Here is a very visual summary.

Google has implemented some changes in the way it displays flights ( a piece I was able to contribute to with some hands-on research!). READ.

Here are two more flight reviews:

 
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