The upcoming gyroplane renaissance and more (The Allplane Newsletter #189)
Advanced Air Mobility
Are US and EU regulators diverging when it comes to the standards acceptable for eVTOL certification? And where does the UK sit in this?
BETA Aerospace has had one of its CX300 ALIA on a European tour, providing some great photo opportunities, whether overflying the cliffs of Western Ireland or meeting Vertical’s VX4 in England.
A BETA CX300 also landed with passengers at New York-JFK.
EHang is, reportedly, preparing to launch an intercity eVTOL, which it calls VT35. In the meantime, EHang has been conducting demo flights in Japan.
Aerofugia, a subsidiary of Chinese car maker Geely, has received China’s CCAR-135 certification for its eVTOL, which apparently allows the aircraft to perform non-scheduled tourist flights. This is the same certification EHang received months ago, but Aerofugia’s AE200 can carry up to six passengers to EHang’s two!
EVE has received a $15.8 million grant from FINEP, a Brazilian public organization. Relatively small amount for aircraft development standards, but every little counts!
Joby got a (potential) billion-dollar order in Saudi Arabia.
Archer was at the receiving end of a truly damning research report by Culper Research accusing the eVTOL firm of misrepresenting its development progress. Archer has denied the allegations.
Electric Aviation
Elysian, a Dutch startup developing an electric airliner, has shared some key elements of its design for the general public.
Voltaero will make its HPU 210 hybrid powertrain available for homebuilt aircraft. The HPU 210 is fitted combines a Kawasaki’s H2SX thermal engine with a maximum power of 150 kW with a 60-kW electric motor.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Although not an EU member, Norway is going to implement the RefuelEU directive. Here are some thoughts about the matter by a Norwegian aviation expert.
Dutch pension fund APG will invest €250 million in SkyNRG.
Wizz Air’s ESG head, Yvonne Moynihan, and the founder of SAF developer Firefly, James Hygate, were on the podcast to talk about this interesting project to turn sewage into SAF and how it fits into Wizz Air’s sustainability road map.
Hydrogen Aviation
Interesting to see GKN Aerospace joining forces with Airbus to work on superconductors and uses of hydrogen as a coolant to make superconductivity possible.
Other sustainable aviation stories
This one is a bit old but I had missed it in the previous send out, so here we go: JetBlue has sold its venture capital arm, JetBlue Ventures, to SKY Leasing, an alternative asset manager.
For more context on this, there is a good summary on TNMT’s newsletter.
And the podcast episode we did with its managing director, Stephen Snyder.
Natilus will work together with Kuehne-Nagel to bring blended-wing-body aircraft to the air cargo industry.
This is a story that I found quite interesting, because sustainability in aviation can also be done through small actions, or, in this scale, small actions at a HUGE scale. Dubai Airports is going to replace 330,000 light bulbs across its facilities with more efficient ones. The savings will be equivalent to the consumption of 4,300 homes!
What else in aviation?
Had also the chance to speak with Air Astana’s CEO, Peter Foster, this time in Kazakhstan, and get the latest insights about the Central Asian air travel market and the airline’s strategy.
Flew Tokyo to Madrid by way of northern Canada, nearly 16 hours on Iberia’s Premium Economy: here is my flight review.
Yet another review, this one of Korean low-cost carrier Air Seoul.
Have you ever heard of gyroplanes? This century-old technology is experiencing a renaissance. Check out why on this piece I wrote for AeroTime.