Fokker Next Gen, Jekta, Heart & more (The Allplane Newsletter #155)
Picture: Heart Aerospace
Electric Aviation
Heart Aerospace has a new CTO and is going to open an R&D center in California. Interestingly, it plans to showcase its demonstrator aircraft in the US as well (that is, whenever it’s ready).
Nice, comprehensive thread on Jordan Taylo’r very informative Twitter-X account about electric aviation technology.
Northvolt has published the results of a third-party validation report on the Li-Metal battery pack its Cuberg subsidiary is developing.
Jekta has unveiled some renderings of the cabin interiors its future electric seaplane PHA-ZE 100. The design is the work of Max Pinucci and his team at MBVision.
Check out the podcast episode we did with Jekta’s founder, George Alafinov, to learn more about this interesting seaplane project.
Advanced Air mobility
How eVTOLs took center stage at the recent South East Europe Aviation Summit (SEAS) in Belgrade.
It is well known that Textron is working on an eVTOL through its eAviation unit. Here are some details of this still-under-development aircraft, called Nexus.
AutoFlight flight-tested its autonomous cargo eVTOL (the freight version of its flagship Prosperity aircraft) at Shanghai-Pudong airport. A first for an airport of this size! READ.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
The port of Rotterdam (Europe’s largest) and nearby Rotterdam-The Hague airport are going to collaborate in SAF projects (nearly a quarter of SAF in Europe passes through the port of Rotterdam) and, potentially, hydrogen for eFuels. READ.
Virgin Atlantic has released the findings form Flight100, the 100% SAF flight it completed over the Atlantic in late 2023 with a Boeing 787 powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.
The experience reduced emissions by 64% compared to the emissions of a standard London Heathrow to New York JFK flight. Non-CO2 particulate emissions were reduced by 40%.
Fuel burn efficiency yielded an extra 1% of energy per fuel unit and actions to optimize operational efficiency resulted in another 4% of fuel saving.
You can read the airline’s statement here.
Hydrogen Aviation
Fokker Next Gen
airBaltic has signed a partnership with Fokker Next Gen (a subsidiary of Dutch aerospace investment group Panta Holdings) to help develop a hydrogen-powered aircraft.
H3 Dynamics, to work with Airbus to develop a 0.5MW fuel cell for use as APU (auxiliary power unit) onboard an A330 aircraft.
Robb Report writes about six novel hydrogen-powered eVTOL concepts (h/t Paul Perera). Hydrogen seems to be pretty niche in advanced air mobility at the moment.
Other Aviation Sustainability Stories
A profile of United Airlines’ Sustainable Flight Fund on Fast Company. READ.
What else in aviation?
A review with plenty of pictures of Lufthansa’s new Allegris cabin.
An in-depth interview with the CEO of Beond, Tero Taskila, about this new luxury airline startup operating out of the Maldives. READ
Lisbon will get a new greenfield airport. Cost estimates range from €6 to 9 billion and it should be capable to handle 100 million passengers when fully developed.
Russia will rename its family of domestically-produced airliners. The historical name Yakovlev has been chosen.
A video interview with Wizz Air’s Chief Commercial Officer.
An update to the list of airlines that stopped flying in 2024.
The Future Aviation Forum is going to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 20-22. Will be there to report from the field!