Lilium deals, Joby getting into autonomy with XWing & more (The Allplane Newsletter #157)
eDA40 electric aircraft powered by EPS batteries. Picture: Diamond Aircraft
Electric Aviation
The state and prospects of the aviation battery industry. After consulting leading experts in this field, I review on AeroTime what is happening in the field of battery development, they key to electric aviation. READ.
Aura Aero and Airbus are going to cooperate in the certification of the 19-seater ERA regional hybrid-electric aircraft. Btw, Aura Aero has also launched a crowdfunding campaign. An interesting move, for sure, although for a company at this stage, I am not sure it communicates financial solidity.
Aerovolt, a British firm building a charging network for electric aircraft, has got a new Twitter page (yes, I still call it Twitter!)
Wild story: Boeing will have to pay $72 million to Zunum, one of the early electric aviation startups. Zunum went out of business some years ago, but apparently it still exists as a legal entity. Back in the day (2013-2019) Zunum was hailed as one of the most promising companies developing electric aircraft and, actually, Boeing became an investor. Now the jury has ruled Boeing interfered with its intellectural property. In a related ruling, Zunum will have to pay back $9 million to Boeing, but this will be subtracted from the compensation payment. READ.
Electra.aero successfully tested the ultra-short-take-off-and-landing (STOL) capabilities of its Goldfinch hybrid aircraft, using less than 170ft of runway. To visualize what this means in practice, check out this video from 1.40’ to 1.45’, just five seconds for the aircraft to be airborne. Pretty impressive!
Advanced Air mobility
Joby has acquired the autonomous flight division of XWing. This is really interesting, because whomever achieves autonomous flight will be able to cut costs significantly on small eVTOL operators, where crew to passage ratios is often 1:4 or so. Boeing is trying with Wisk and XWing has achieved some impressive successes with Cessna Caravans. The obstacles will possibly have more to do with regulation and public acceptance than technology. Read here the acquisition story.
And to learn more about Xwing, you can listen here to the podcast episode we recorded with its founder and CEO, Marc Piette.
Archer has received its Part 135 Air Carrier & Operator Certificate from the FFA. This means that the eVTOL OEM will also be able to operate its own aircraft. The company has said this will help them pave the way for entry into service with other operators such as United Airlines, which have ordered the Midnight aircraft.
Also from Archer: the company is advancing with its plans in Korea, another country that is poised to be one of the eVTOLs early adopters. What is interesting this time is that it looks like besides signing papers full of good intentions, Kakao Mobility is actually putting some real money into the project ($7 million this year and potentially another $250 million to follow). READ.
Volocopter has managed to get a financial lifeline from its existing shareholders. The future of the German eVTOL developer was being increasingly questioned as funds were drying out with little apparent progress on other fronts.
Airbus partners with Avincis on Advanced Air Mobility. The two companies will develop a concept of operations for the CityAirbus eVTOL. While Avincis is a name that is not very well known by the general public, it operates a large helicopter and aircraft fleet throughout Europe providing services like emergency and firefighting for governments and other customers. READ.
Yet another Chinese city jumping onto the eVTOL bandwagon and apparently ready to order up to 100 aircraft from XPeng for tourism uses. I don’t know enough about China to judge how serious these plans are.
Still some deals on the back of the recent Future Aviation Forum in Saudi Arabia: Joby has signed a partnership with Mukamalah, the aviation arm of oil giant Aramco.
A raft of announcements by Lilium:
Agreement with Luxaviation’s subsidiary ExecuJet to develop ground infrastructure for eVTOL operations (for example, charging facilities at FBOs)
4-aircraft order (+12 options) from UK-based eVolare ¡
Lilium, UrbanV and Aeroports de la Côte d’Azur joined forces to push for eVTOL operations roll out in the Cote d’Azur. At the moment, Monaco to Nice is possibly one of the most active (conventional) helicopter markets in Europe!
Last but not least, a full scale mock up of the Lilium Jet was on display at EBACE and it looked amazing!
Embraer’s EVE has shown some images of its first prototype, which is still not completed, in a video:
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Airbus has published the findings of the World’s first in-flight study of commercial aircraft using 100% sustainable aviation fuel show significant non-CO2 emission reductions. Aside from the already pretty well known effect on carbon emissions, SAF has also reduced the effect of contrail formation apparently. READ.
Emirates has become the first airline to join Germany’s aireg initiative, which gathers a broad range of companies and organizations seeking to promote renewable energy use and lower carbon emissions. READ.
LanzaJet is partnering with Haffner Energy to build a SAF (Alcohol-to-Jet) plant at Paris-Vatry airport with a capacity for 30,000 tons per year, potentially trebling later on. Paris-Vatry is also a center of experimentation for advanced air mobility.
Other Aviation Sustainability Stories
Cirium, the aviation data company, has released “Emerald Sky”, a data product to track the environmental performance of the airlines’ aircraft fleets. READ.
4AIR has publish the results of a study that quantifies the carbon emissions that could have been avoided by making small adjustments to a number of private flights. The number is quite substantial, actually, 50%. 4Air’s CEO, Kennedy Ricci, was actually on the podcast some time ago talking about sustainability and executive aviation. LISTEN.
Regent has also quite a couple of novelties to share:
Some pics emerged of the first Viceroy prototype being built.
The Lloyd’s Register (LR) will help Regent get its maritime certification…because even if its flies, the ground-in-wing vehicle is technically a boat!
And, while Regent has been getting lots of attention, it is not the only startup in the US developing an ekranoplan-type vehicle: the Flying Ship Company has also been selected to take part in the military AFWERX program.
To learn more about the Flying Ship Company, you can check my CNN piece about the revival of this technology.
Turkish Airlines has launched a brand called “Tomorrow On-board” for its sustainability initiatives.