The largest sustainable aviation fund, magniX, NASA & more (The Allplane Newsletter #164)
Let’s see what happened in the world of aviation in the last few days, starting by the fact that…
There’s a new episode of the Podcast!
Mukul Hariharan, managing partner of United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund was on the podcast sharing how is it like to run the World’s largest investment fund focusing on sustainable aviation. LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE.
Electric Aviation
Picture: magniX
magniX presented the DHC-7 Dash 7 aircraft that will act as a testbank for NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration Project, a program that has been running since 2021 and through which the Seattle-based ompany received $74.3M. magniX is going to replace two of the aircraft four turbines with its electric propulsion system.
Northvolt is moving all of its Cuberg Lithium-metal battery operations to Sweden. It’s hard to believe that not even 6 months ago I was reporting from Cuberg’s expanded facilities in the Bay Area!
Shout out to Morell Westermann (a friend of the Allplane Podcast!), who keeps promoting electric aviation in Switzerland and Europe, this time by putting together the eForce project to get off-duty Swiss Air Force pilots to fly electric demo flights.
A US judge overturned a previous jury decision by which Boeing had to pay now-bankrupt electric aircraft firm Zunum, one of the pioneers in this space, $72 million in damages. In the ruling, the judge says the alleged trade secrets that Boeing got from Zunum, were not that secret, after all.
The Nordic governments have reaffirmed their commitment towards the development of electric aviation.
Advanced Air Mobility
Archer has closed an additional $230 million round. On this occasion it has been a PIPE placement, which has allowed existing shareholders to invest equity at below market rates. To highlight of this one: United Airlines invests again and Stellantis, the car maker, deepens its financial and industrial commitment to Archer.
A few days earlier, Archer also announced a $580M, 116-aircraft order from a company called Future Flight Global, which was started by some former corporate aviation executives. How real are these orders from operators with little to no track record? Will see…
Are we going to see flying taxis at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics? Archer thinks so, although Volocopter has similar hopes for the Paris Games and it has ended up quite badly, in no small part because of local politics.
Volocopter may not have flown at the Olympics, but it finally managed to do so in another rather grand setting: Versailles Palace. Pretty amazing pics, tbh!
Lilium has started integrating its electrical power system, a truly essential element of its eVTOL aircraft. To learn more about the status of the Lilium project, check out my report from my factory visit in April.
EHang has been conducting EGNOS-assisted (“European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service”) flight tests at Lleida-Alguaire airport, in Catalonia, testing the uses of this technology for eVTOL operations.
Have you ever seen a drone performing heavy-lift operations to service off-shore wind farms? Here’s a video for you, filmed at Ørsted’s Borssele wind farm off the Dutch coast (h/t Julie Garland).
(interestingly, Ørsted has scaled down its SAF plans, as this SAF-bearish article explains)
XTI Aerospace has released a video feaaturing its TriFan 600 eVTOL aircraft. Quite interesting, since this is an eVTOL developer that doesn’t get talk about that often.
Hydrogen Aviation
Lots of talk about hydrogen as fuel, but another of its uses may be as an ingredient to make synthetic aviation fuel. UK startup OXCCU said it will build a demonstration plant.
Here is a hydrogen flight startup from Germany, Apus Zero Emission, that, I must confess, didn’t know much about, but seems to be quite down the road in the development of a small hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Great graph shared by Aaron Robinson, who is in charge of SAF projects at IAG, showing how each major airline scores in SAF use in relative terms. That is, if you take SAF uptake as a % or total fuel consumption. Check it out!
BP is investing $49M to get a 15% stake in a Chinese SAF producer.
Virgin Atlantic got in trouble with the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for portraying its recent 100% SAF-powered flight across the Atlantic in a too much favourable way.
New LanzaJet Alcohol-to-Jet SAF project in Australia, with Boeing’s support.
Other sustainable aviation stories
Sustainable Aero Lab has published its airline sustainability ranking, which ranks airlines for their sustainability commitment on the basis of how they score in different areas, such as SAF intake, investment in new tech or efficiency of their fleet. The ranking can be consulted here (spoiler: United Airlines comes on top!)
The FAA has issued $244.5M in FAST Grants (which stand for “Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition”). Among the recipients, quite a few familiar names that have appeared with regularity on these pages: Heart Aerospace, Wright Electric, JetZero and LanzaJet. You can check them all here.
Direct Carbon Capture firm Spiritus (which made headlines after it said it was offsetting, on its own initiative, Taylor Swift’s private jet emissions) announced it is moving forward with what may well become the largest carbon capture plant in the world, Orchard One in Wyoming. The startup claims it may be able to reduce carbon capture costs by as much as 85%.
Ecojet, a British startup airline that is basing its value proposition on its environmental credentials, is interested in buying 50 autogyros from ARC Aerosystems. The autogyro is an old concept, that may get a new lease of life, with updated technology and low fuel consumption credentials.
New Saudi carrier, Riyadh Air, isn’t flying yet but it has got some shiny-new electric buses already.
But, how serious are the Gulf carriers about sustainability? Here’s an optimistic take. The paradox is that fossil fuels have provided (and still massively do) the basis for the region’s prosperity, but natural conditions could also make them an ideal production spot for different sorts of renewable and low carbon alternatives.
Alaska Airlines is investing in JetZero’s ultra-efficient blended-wind-body concept with low emissions.
Other interesting aviation stories
Oman Air did something quite interesting with a First Class that had lost its raison-d’être: it kept it in place, but rebranded it as “Business Studio”, a sort of Business-Class+, but still marketed cheaper than traditional First.
Riyadh’ gigantic new airport project is taking shape. The project’s management company has now signed with major contractors, including Foster+Partners.
And also in Saudi, a new cargo-only airline may soon be launched.
Hypersonic flight startup Hermeus keeps making progress and it has now released a video of one of its demonstrators taxiing.
Taiwanese carrier Starlux is adding 6 A321neos. If you wish to see how is it like to fly the A321neo on this premium carrier, check out our flight review of both business and economy class!
Airline tech firm FLYR, which makes software that many airlines use to run and optimize their booking systems and other functions, has raised an additional $295M in a Series D round. Interestingly, one of its customers, Avianca, is among the new investors.