Riyadh Air designer uniforms, a bit of eVTOL realism & more (The Allplane Newsletter #160)
Electric Aviation
magniX presented its own battery for aviation, which it calls “Samson300” (a hint a the 300 Wh/kg density that it offers).
magniX
The Aircraft Company has released yet another concept of its Pangea family of hybrid-electric aircraft, which it called SY50J. So far, so good, but it appears these concepts only exist on paper. READ.
An interesting portrait of Helios Horizon, a startup experimenting with high altitude electric flight. READ.
A video interview with Andre Stein, Eviation’s new CEO (formerly at EVE ). WATCH
Advanced Air mobility
May takeaways from the recent Revolution.aero conference in London. Is the eVTOL industry being realistic enough?
Lilium completed the testing of the electric jet propulsion unit, on the ground in Germany. READ.
Great behind-the-scenes documentary about Joby:
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Air New Zealand announced it has taken delivery of 500,000 liters of sustainable aviation fuel, made in China using waste cooking oil. How much is that? The equivalent to 165 flights Auckland-Wellington in an Airbus A320. READ.
Other sustainable aviation news
Lufthansa has announced that it will introduce an environmental surcharge on all of the group’s flights departing the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland. This is to pay for the additional costs of switching to cleaner technologies, like SAF. The amount will depend on the specific flight, but it can get as high as €72 per passenger. READ.
Other interesting aviation stories
Barcelona-based Volotea has entered an agreement with Abra Group (avianca and GOL) to connect both networks through Madrid.
Volotea has currently a very limited presence in the Spanish capital, but this may soon change. In fact, it may base up to 20 aircraft there, which would make of Madrid-Barajas the airline’s main base.
The clear goal here is to use any market realignment that results from remedial measures dictated by the EU in order to approve the Iberia acquisition of Air Europa.
And more M&A: Qatar Airways may be readying an offer for 20% of Virgin Australia.
New York’s JFK airport will be utterly transformed when The New Terminal One comes into service. This week, the consortium building it placed the largest muni bond issue ever for an airport project, $2.55 billion (the whole Terminal Project is $9.5 billion and the broader JFK upgrade project is a wooping $19 billion!).
If interested in this topic, you can check the podcast episode we did with Charles Everett, director of aviation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Riyadh Air presented its cabin crew designer uniforms at a Paris fashion show.
Riyadh Air