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MARKET UPDATE - 18/10/2022 - ⚡️ ELECTRIC ✈️ AVIATION
EVTOL / ADVANCED / URBAN AIR MOBILITY (UAM / AAM)
- DELTA AIR LINES | JOBY AVIATION
- EHANG
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AVIATION RESEARCH | SOLVAY
- NASA
- PLANA
- ZURI
VERTIPORTS / INFRASTRUCTURE
- ATLANTIA | AEROPORTI DI ROMA | URBANV | VOLOCOPTER
SMALL PROPELLER, COMMUTER (19-SEATS OR LESS)
- AFRIJET | AURA AERO | DUX | ELITAVIA | FLYING GREEN | FMS | TWIN JET
- DOVETAIL ELECTRIC AVIATION | MOBIUS ENERGY
- JETSTREAM AVIATION CAPITAL | SURF AIR MOBILITY
- AMERICAN AIRLINES | UNIVERSAL HYDROGEN
EVTOL / ADVANCED / URBAN AIR MOBILITY (UAM / AAM)
DELTA AIR LINES | JOBY AVIATION
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) announced a $60m USD equity investment into Joby Aviation, with "up to $200 million possible as further milestones are achieved." The companies "will target New York and Los Angeles" for first eVTOL passenger services, and:
"...will work together to integrate a Joby-operated service into Delta’s customer-facing channels, providing customers who travel with Delta through New York and Los Angeles the opportunity to reserve a seat for seamless, zero-operating-emission, short-range journeys to and from city airports when booking Delta travel.
The partnership will be mutually exclusive across the U.S. and U.K. for five years following commercial launch, with the potential to extend that period."
(via Delta Air Lines).
BAE SYSTEMS | SUPERNAL
BAE Systems will design and develop a fly-by-wire flight control system for Supernal's "autonomous-capable [eVTOL] aircraft" (via BAE Systems, Supernal).
DUFOUR AEROSPACE | RUAG
Swizterland's Dufour Aerospace and RUAG announced a collaboration that will start with RUAG supporting "design and testing of the structure" of Dufour's Aero 2, and that "is intended to develop into a long-term strategic partnership in the field of development, manufacture and maintenance of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) and components":
(via Dufour Aerospace).
HONEYWELL | SUPERNAL
Honeywell signed an agreement that will see the company explore integration of their Anthem flight deck into Supernal's eVTOL aircraft (via Supernal).
LUCY | TRANSAVIA VENTURES
Transavia Ventures - corporate venture capital arm of the Dutch low-cost airline and KLM subsidiary - made an investment of an undisclosed amount in Lucy - a startup company that plans to offer electric flight from Eindhoven Airport in 2025, initially using "5 seater e-planes with a range of about 250 km":
(via Transavia).
XPENG HUITIAN
Xpeng Huitian / Aero HT completed a series of public flight demonstrations in Dubai with their XPENG X2 / Voyager X2 "flying car" - the first outside of China - having been granted a flying permit by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA):
(via Xpeng Huitian)
EHANG
eHang participated in successful demonstration flights in Spain as part of the AMU-LED project:
(via eHang).
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR AVIATION RESEARCH | SOLVAY
The Solvay / National Institute for Aviation Research manufacturing Innovation Center at Wichita State University (announced in March) opened, providing aviation companies with:
"...access to 150,000 square feet of ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) compliant development, testing and prototyping facilities as well as the latest in advanced aviation material research"
Companies will be able to fabricate entire aircraft structures such as wings and fuselages at a fraction of the cost of making it themselves. Using automated and high-rate processing with smart and agile manufacturing technologies, Solvay and NIAR engineers will work hand-in-hand with customers to test ideas and innovative structures in real time"
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is one of the core focus sectors for the centre:
(via Aviation24).
NASA
NASA's Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety or 'SABERS' research team continue to make progress with research into solid state battery technology, having achieved "capacity of 500 watt-hours per kilogram" with their vertically stacked cells:
(via NASA).
PLANA
South Korea's PLANA - established in just 2021 by former head of Hyundai's UAM vehicle development department Braden J. Kim - have "begun work on a new long-range, hybrid-electric VTOL air taxi designed to carry up to seven people about 350 miles (500 km) at speeds up to 217 mph (350 km/h)" and are in the process of raising a $10m USD round of investment to realise that ambition:
(via New Atlas).
AUTOFLIGHT
China's AutoFlight hired Omer Bar-Yohay (former CEO of Eviation) and Chad Cashin (previously of Uber Elevate / Joby Aviation) to head up the firm's newly opened US office (via FlightGlobal).
ZURI
Zuri released an updated hybrid-electric vehicle design, now with V-tail and 1+2+2 passenger seating configuration:
(via Zuri).
AIRSPEEDER
Airspeeder conducted their first remotely piloted eVTOL circuit 'race' in Australia:
(via Airspeeder)
VERTIPORTS / INFRASTRUCTURE
JOBY AVIATION | SKYPORTS
Joby Aviation and Skyports announced a partnership that will see the companies collaborative 'Living Lab' passenger terminal used to both test technologies and procedures as well as tour the US over the next 18 months "giving industry and the public the opportunity to experience the future of aviation":
(via Joby Aviation, Skyports).
ATLANTIA | AEROPORTI DI ROMA | URBANV | VOLOCOPTER
Together with Atlantia and their Aeroporti di Roma subsidiary, Volocopter "conducted the first crewed eVTOL public test flight in Italy..while presenting the country’s first advanced air mobility (AAM) testing vertiport and hosting an interactive booking process on Volocopter’s VoloIQ digital platform."
The flight tests were followed by a vertiport demonstration from newly established vertiport developers UrbanV ( created by Atlantia subsidiaries Aeroporti di Roma, Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur in France and SAVE Group):
(via Volocopter).
SMALL PROPELLER, COMMUTER (19-SEATS OR LESS)
AFRIJET | AURA AERO | DUX | ELITAVIA | FLYING GREEN | FMS | TWIN JET
France's Aura Aero claimed to have secured "over 130" new Letters of Intent from international airlines for the company's yet to be built Electric Regional Aircraft 'ERA' - due to enter service in 2027 - bringing total "order intentions" to 330.
With three other customers yet to be announced, confirmed new LOIs for ERA have been signed by:
Afrijet | Gabon - 10 aircraft
Elitavia | Malta - 20 aircraft
DUX | Brazil - 20 aircraft
Flying Green | France - 10 aircraft
FMS | Switzerland - 10 aircraft
Twinjet | France - 25 aircraft
(via Aura Aero).
DOVETAIL ELECTRIC AVIATION | MOBIUS ENERGY
Dovetail Electric Aviation signed a deal with Mobius Energy that will see the latter's Husky battery modules integrated into 65 of the former's Cessna Grand Caravan conversions. The aircraft are planned to enter the market, fully certified, in 2025 (via EIN Newswires).
JETSTREAM AVIATION CAPITAL | SURF AIR MOBILITY
Surf Air Mobility struck a deal with specialist regional turboprop lessor Jetstream Aviation Capital that will see $450m made available for aircraft acquisition / leasing, and "up to 250 hybrid and fully-electric powertrains" purchased in the next five years (via Surf Air Mobility).
FRS | REGENT CRAFT
German ferry operator FRS entered into an agreement to add an unspecified number of both 12-passenger Viceroy and up to 100 passenger Monarch electric sea gliders (from Regent Craft) to their global vessel fleet (via BusinessWire).
H55 | RTX VENTURES
Raytheon's corporate venturing arm - RTX Ventures - announced an investment in Swiss electric propulsion specialists H55. Though financials were not disclosed RTX's stake was described as "a minority investment" in the business (via H55, RTX).
REGIONAL AIRCRAFT / MW+
HEART AEROSPACE | SEVENAIR
Sweden's Heart Aerospace announced that Portuguese regional airline Sevenair had signed an LOI for "up to six ES-30s" with an option on three more, and joined the company's Industrial Advisory Board.
"With this latest expression of interest from Sevenair, Heart Aerospace has a total of 230 orders and 100 options for the ES-30, along with LOIs for a further 99 airplanes":
(via Heart Aerospace).
AMERICAN AIRLINES | UNIVERSAL HYDROGEN
American Airlines made an equity investment in Universal Hydrogen, financial details of which were not disclosed (via American Airlines, Universal Hydrogen).
HYPOINT | ZEROAVIA
ZeroAvia acquired high temperature hydrogen fuel cell specialists HyPoint for an undisclosed sum. The 40-strong engineering team will be integrated into the parent company's. HyPoint's CEO becomes 'GM for VTOL and New Segments' at ZeroAvia:
(via ZeroAvia).