China will likely be the first geographic region to embrace urban air mobility and will dominate the market through 2035, when the U.S. is projected to take over market leadership.
Explorer Aircraft is developing a hybrid-electric regional airplane derived from the high-wing single-engine Explorer 500T utility aircraft, a more powerful version of which it plans to fly with a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-40A turboprop over the coming weeks.
Startup Archer Aviation has transported its Maker technology demonstrator to a flight test center in California in preparation for a first hover flight of the electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle before year’s end.
Existing composite materials and manufacturing processes will not scale to the production volumes envisioned for advanced air mobility and startups should consider collaborating to qualify new technologies, urges a company formed to help companies scale up manufacturing.
Norwegian regional airline Wideroe is continuing its journey toward introducing zero-emissions aircraft, signing an agreement with Embraer’s Eve subsidiary to study electric vertical takeoff and landing operations in Scandinavia.
South Korean automaker Hyundai has renamed its urban air mobility division Supernal and plans to begin certification of its electric air taxi in the U.S. in 2024, aiming to launch commercial flights in 2028.
U.S.-based satellite communications provider Viasat on Nov. 8 announced a definitive agreement to acquire UK-based Inmarsat in a transaction valued at $7.3 billion that would create an unrivaled, multiband space and terrestrial network serving aviation, maritime and other markets.
The family of Energia-branded concepts—with all-electric, hybrid-electric or hydrogen-fueled propulsion for low emissions and noise—are aimed to enter into service between 2030 and 2040.
The Canadian Advanced Air Mobility Consortium (CAAM) has released a report on the potential of Toronto as an early market as it works toward releasing a national road map for Canada.
Swiss startup Dufour Aerospace has launched a tiltwing unmanned cargo aircraft as a step toward development of its planned Aero3 passenger-carrying electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft
Barely a month after completing a $100 million series A fundraising round, Chinese startup Autoflight has flown a prototype of its V1500M three/four-passenger electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi.
There are oh-so-many technological challenges remaining for the creators of the electric motors, engines and vehicles that will begin to fly under the banner of advanced air mobility.
Hydrogen-propulsion startup ZeroAvia has partnered with the Royal Schiphol Group to launch zero-emission commercial passenger flights between Rotterdam The Hague Airport and London with a 19-seat aircraft in 2024.
Wing is expanding its drone delivery operations from smaller towns into more complex urban areas with plans to begin on-demand store-to-door deliveries in metropolitan Dallas-Fort Worth.
In July 2019, research and development center Tecnalia in Spain’s Basque region conducted tethered indoor test flights of the prototype of an unusual “drone of drones” design for an autonomous air taxi. Now Spanish unmanned aircraft services provider Umiles has acquired the design from Tecnalia with the goal of producing the first 100% domestically developed electric-vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle.
Startup ZeroAvia has partnered with Mitsubishi’s CRJ support division, MHI RJ Aviation, to develop hydrogen-electric propulsion for regional jets, aiming for market availability in 2028.
Airflow has signed a memorandum of understanding with Honeywell to explore use of the avionics manufacturer’s IntuVue RDR-84K compact multimode radar for detect-and-avoid on its planned electric short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
