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Archer has announced that Maker successfully completed its first transition to full wing-borne flight on November 29, 2022.

Maker has 12 propellers attached to six booms on a fixed wing. All 12 propellers provide vertical lift during take-off and landing. The forward 6 propellers tilt forward to cruise position to provide propulsion during forward flight, with the wing providing aerodynamic lift as in a conventional airplane. During this first flight, Maker’s tilt propellers were locked in cruise position for the first time and the aircraft flew at a calibrated airspeed of 91 knots (105 mph).

The success of the Maker flight testing program demonstrates a number of the key enabling technologies for Midnight (the company’s production version eVTOL), such as the aircraft’s flight control system. The Maker flight test program has generated invaluable data that Archer has leveraged in the development and certification process for Midnight. Archer has made rapid progress on Maker’s flight testing program, completing this transition to fully wing-borne flight in less than 12 months after its first hover flight. 

“From day one, Archer’s strategy has always been about finding the most efficient path to commercializing eVTOL aircraft,” said Adam Goldstein, Archer’s Founder and CEO. “The data and experience we’ve gathered from Maker’s rigorous flight testing program has been invaluable to the development and certification path of Midnight, and lends further confidence to our belief that Archer will be the first company to certify an eVTOL aircraft in the US with the FAA.”

“This significant achievement is a testament to the countless hours of design, simulation and wind tunnel testing that our team has conducted behind-the-scenes,” said Dr. Geoff Bower, Archer’s Chief Engineer responsible for overseeing Maker’s flight test campaign. Dr. Bower has over a decade of experience in the eVTOL aircraft industry, during which he has helped design and build four full-scale eVTOL aircraft that have successfully completed flight test campaigns. “Looking forward to the commercialization of Midnight, we’ll continue to draw upon the incredible findings and lessons learned from Maker’s flight testing program.” 

Why it matters: Achieving the transition to forward flight is critical to validating the flight physics of Archer’s proprietary 12-tilt-6 propeller configuration that it uses on Maker, and will use with Midnight. Archer recently recently unveiled Midnight at its Open House on November 16thm and is working to certify with the FAA in late 2024.

• Archer Unveils its Production Aircraft, Midnight (November 2022)
• Archer Announces Production Plan for its eVTOL Aircraft (October 2022)
• United Airlines Completes $10M Pre-Payment for 100 Archer eVTOL Aircraft (August 2022)

Blueflite, developer an eVTOL cargo system and aircraft , has just announced that the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has granted a patent for the company’s aircraft design. The patent is specifically titled “Vertical Take-Off and Landing Vehicle”.

While Blueflite’s aircraft is not the same size as some large scale eVTOLs in development, the company has already begun making many of its products and services commercially available. The aircraft’s unique design can allow for maneuverability in many urban environments, and operations in areas where infrastructure may not be accessible.

While the aircraft uses wings to provide lift in forward flight, the rotors of the aircraft can tilt to either provide forward propulsion, or lift and control for vertical take-off, landing, low-speed flight, and hovering. This unique design can provide maneuverability, speed, range, and payload capabilities that combined would not be possible in fixed-wing UAVs or quadcopter layouts. The patent filed with the USPTO covers company’s proprietary aircraft design including the unique tilt-mechanism, internal payload bay, compact wing design, and control software.

Said Frank Noppel, Blueflite Founder and CEO, when speaking about the aircraft: “These key features are absent from most delivery drones on the market today and we believe that these capabilities are essential to succeed in the drone logistics industry. This is just the first in a series of patents we have pending as Blueflite continues to invest in the best mobility technology for future logistics solutions.”

Blueflite is based in Ann-Arbor, Michigan, with the mission of providing a “drone-based logistics platform for faster and more cost-effective deliveries.” In particular, the company prides itself on its aircraft’s ability to dependably manuever in inclimate weather and urban environments, as well as complete longer-range mission profiles.

Why it’s important: The design of Blueflite’s aircraft has immense potential both for UAV drone operations and for larger-scale cargo eVTOLs. By receiving this patent, Blueflite will be able to begin implementing its winged eVTOL solution commercially in more areas. These operations can both prove the functionality of this design as well as demonstrate the immense benefits of this technology. Together, these will encourage the further development of this industry, as well as larger aircraft that can deliver even more cargo with the same versatile capabilities.

Source // Blueflite

Related:

• Blueflite Receives Testing Grant from Michigan Economic Development Corporation
• Wingcopter Captures $16MM Deal with Spright for Medical Drone Deliveries in the US
• Wing’s New Model for Metropolitan Drone Delivery
• EHang Unveils Heavy-lift AAV for Short-to-Medium-Haul Aerial Logistics

SkyDrive announced on November 28th that they’ve signed a MoU with Pacific Group Co Ltd, a leading renewable energy company and investment promotion with international funds in Vietnam, for pre-order of 10 SkyDrive SD-05 eVTOL’s with options for up to 90 additional, or 100 total. Pacific Group has also agreed to explore sustainable and easily accessible new mobility solutions focused on the use case of SkyDrive’s SD-05 flying vehicles in the Vietnamese market. 

Pacific Group’s interest in SkyDrive’s eVTOLs specifically targets the crowded roadways in Vietnam’s urban centers, and aims to increase traffic safety by removing vehicles from the road and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions with electric-powered aircraft.

“We would be happy to contribute to solving Vietnam’s social issues by providing eVTOLs, a means of transportation using  the sky, as one of the country’s new transportation infrastructures,” said SkyDrive CEO  Tomohiro Fukuzawa.

Vietnam’s government committed at COP26 to net-zero emissions by year 2050, and several companies and localities in Vietnam include trending toward net zero emissions as a must-do in their short term business plan. Le Ngoc Anh Minh, Executive President and Founder of Pacific Group, stated: “Of course, we will have to work closely with SkyDrive and several authorities such as Vietnam Transport Ministry, Civil Aviation Agency of Vietnam, Vietnam Ministry of Defense from time to time to explain and present the trend and technology of eVTOL to get approval and to enhance regulations updated.”

Why it’s important: Pacific Group’s interest in SkyDrive eVTOLs represents an early move by a Vietnamese customer and priority position in line to receive eVTOL aircraft for utilization in Vietnam. Further, this order represents burgeoning demand for transportation investments and improvements in Vietnam, a country currently making strides in economic modernization and per capita GDP growth as the nation modernizes their industry.

Adacel, a global expert in advanced air traffic control solutions, has recently announced the opening of a new office in Estonia, furthering the country’s expansion in Europe for its virtual air traffic management solutions.

Above: One of Adacel’s Virtual Air Traffic Control solutions in action

Adacel is a long-standing provider of advanced air traffic control products and services, in commercial operation since 1987. According to the company, more than 21% of the world’s airspace is managed with Adacel’s Aurora ATM software. Now, as Adacel looks into the future of these technologies, it has opened a new office in Tallinn, Estonia.

Adacel’s expertise lies in creating digital air traffic control solutions. Currently, it’s most up-and coming product is REVAL, a virtual air-traffic control tower that allows air traffic controllers to manage airspace remotely. These ‘remote tower operations’ allow for remote single-tower management of air traffic control in medium-sized airports. Each system includes technologies for managing communication, navigation, and surveillance, all in order to provide the benefits of an on-site tower with a more cost-effective approach.

The company’s new office in Tallin is a direct result of its virtual ATC tower acquisition and development. The new office will focus exclusively growing Adacel’s virtual ATC business, while working in close collaboration with Estonian Air Navigation Services to deliver its vision of fully digitizing Estonia’s regional airports by 2025.

Said Daniel Verret, Adacel’s CEO, “Adacel’s mission is to leverage our industry expertise with the infinite potential of technology to advance safety and efficiency in aviation. With the opening of our new office in Tallinn, Estonia, we are committed to carry out our vision with the new team.”

Above: Autonomous aerial mobility developer Ehang’s virtual air traffic control center, which looks similar to a larger-scale version of Adacel’s remote ATC towers.

Why it’s important: While Adacel currently hasn’t announced any specifics regarding airspace management for urban aerial mobility aircraft like eVTOL, the company is clearly dedicated to staying at the cutting-edge of aviation and air traffic management innovations. As eVTOL aircraft begin to commercialize and their operation numbers grow, there will certainly be great need for technologies that allow controllers to efficiently manage high volumes of these aircraft in dense urban areas. Adacel, as a premier global provider in this field, would be well positioned to begin creating these intelligent solutions.

Source // Adacel, Ehang

Related:

• EHang’s Falcon AAV Performs Logistics Deliveries in Estonia
• Virtual ATC Tower Training Opportunities for Aerial Mobility

The FAA signed a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) document on November 21st that adds a “powered lift” aircraft to the existing types of air carrier operations, a move that would set the stage for air carrier regulations that would apply specifically to eVTOL and aerial mobility aircraft in the future.

The 98 page document outlines the mechanics of the new categories integration into existing regulations, as well as proposes the addition of “powered lift” aircraft to 14 CFR 110.2 and extends rules applicable to air carriers in certain operations to aerial mobility operations.

Additionally, the NPRM states that powered lift operational experience will be required for air carriers intending to operate powered lift type aircraft in air carrier capacities, meaning that the initial pool of powered lift experience will reside largely with OEM’s. Existing Part 135 and 121 carriers do not yet operate eVTOL aircraft as they’ve not yet been certified, and will seek operating experience with these new aircraft types as soon as possible to meet the proposed requirements for issuance of operation certificates (Part 119). Importantly, the NPRM extends beyond just Part 121 and 135, but also to Parts 91, 125, and 136 to ensure coverage and effectivity of regulations to the foreseeable applications of eVTOL use cases beyond just point to point transportation.

Why it’s important: The FAA’s movement to propose a new category of aircraft type be included in existing air carrier documentation is an important step for the FAA as they lay the groundwork for an innovative and disruptive type of aircraft that will challenge the current short haul to last mile status quo. Further, the FAA’s NPRM is currently under review and comment submission, meaning that the FAA will likely receive input from OEM’s developing aerial mobility aircraft as well as potential future operators as well.

The NPRM document from the FAA is located here.

Australia’s Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has released $18M in grants under the first round of the New and Emerging Aviation Technology Partnerships in early November.

“The Emerging Aviation Technology Partnerships Program will ensure our aviation sector remains at the forefront of innovation as it continues to develop and grow, particularly with renewed focus on achieving net zero carbon emissions”, said Minister Catherine King.

This Grant makes it clear that there is strong policy support for aerial mobility in Australia and supports the eVTOL development roadmap issued by CASA to guide the future deployment and rollout of aerial mobility services in Australia.

Companies like Skyportz are seeking to capitalize on this new fund, having worked over the past 4 years to encourage the development of Advanced Air Mobility policy at all levels of Government, particularly in the space of essential vertiport infrastructure.

Skyportz has over 400 potential sites owned by property partners that are interested in licensing for operation of said sites as vertiports.

“The key to this industry is breaking the nexus between aviation and existing airports. We need to develop a network of new vertiport sites if the industry is to reach its potential and Skyportz is readying the landscape to partner with infrastructure investors”, said Skyportz CEO Clem Newton-Brown.

Why it’s important: Australia’s CASA budget for continued eVTOL development supports the future growth of aerial mobility in Australia and provides a monetary incentive for companies considering entry to the space. Additionally, the monetary incentive will also attract land owners and those in commercial real estate to more seriously consider their holdings as potential opportunities for aerial mobility usage.

Lilium, the Munich-based eVTOL maker, has announced that it’s secured an additional $119M USD in capital from existing shareholders, new investors, and strategic partners.

Investing participants include Honeywell and Aciturri as well as LGT and its affiliated impact investor Lightrock, Tencent, B. Riley Securities and certain affiliates thereof. Lilium’s new CEO, Klaus Roewe, as well as three additional board members, Barry Engle, David Wallerstein and Niklas Zennström, are also participating.

The fundraising is a concurrent private placement and registered direct offering (RDO).

Citigroup, B. Riley Securities and Piper Sandler are acting as placement agents for the offerings.

Lilium agreed to issue and sell: (a) an aggregate of 91,524,936 of the Company’s Class A ordinary shares at a price of $1.30 per share; and (b) warrants exercisable for an aggregate of 45,762,463 Shares, with an exercise price of $1.30 per share in the private placement and registered direct offerings.

The offerings are expected to close on November 22, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. Lilium and its officers and directors have agreed to a lockup of 30 days subject to customary exclusions.

Lilium continues flight testing in Spain of its Phoenix 2 technology demonstrator and has announced its intentions to certify its production model eVTOL in 2025.

Why it matters: In 2021, Lilium reported a loss of ~$420M with the lion’s share of costs coming from research and development. Lilium has spent a good deal of 2022 building strong industry partnerships for manufacturing and operation of its eVTOL jet. This latest round of funding should provide an additional boost to Lilium’s flight testing and certification efforts to begin commercialization near the same time as other leading eVTOL competitors in the aerial mobility space.

Related:

• GlobeAir to serve Southern France and Italy with the Lilium Jet (October 2022)
• Lilium and Helity to Develop High Speed Electric Air Mobility Network in Southern Spain (August 2022)
• Lilium Completes Transition from Hover to Winged Flight (June 2022)

While many eVTOL makers have kept autonomy in mind while designing their aircraft, most upcoming designs feature piloted solutions, with some semi-autonomous pilot-assistance capabilities. As these aircraft have come closer to certification, it’s become apparent that commercial airworthiness for these electric aircraft will likely come before fully autonomous flight, meaning that autonomy has become a less immediate goal.

However, flight autonomy company Xwing has now formed a three-year partnership with NASA to begin developing safety frameworks and infrastructure infrastructure standards for autonomous flight.

Currently, Xwing’s work includes creating autonomous flight systems for existing aircraft, such as modified Cessna Grand Caravans. In 2021, the company flew the world’s first fully autonomous cargo flight with one of these aircraft. In this flight, the fixed-wing aircraft was able to back out of its gate, fly a predetermined mission, and pull into a gate at the destination, all fully autonomously. The ultimate vision of the company is to create systems that will allow many kinds of aircraft to completely autonomously fly pre-set routes.

In Xwing’s new partnership with NASA, the two organizations seek to establish what impact autonomous aircraft may have on national airspace, and build safety procedures for autonomous operations and design. The partnership will allow data to be shared between the two organizations, and first aims to evaluate safety arguments around runway detection and identification for vision-based landing.  It will also assess aircraft localization assurance processes and enhance GPS, according to NASA.

Said Marc Piette, CEO, Xwing: “There are different components associated with doing this. A big part is the safety case, that comes with system safety analysis, data analysis to ensure these vehicles can integrate safely with other traffic whilst being able to perform all the phases of a set mission.”

With the partnership, Xwing will also begin to share data captured from its non-autonomous part 135 cargo fleet as well. NASA’s System-Wide Safety Program (SWS) Project Manager said, “NASA focuses its research and technology transfers to have real impact, and this will help NASA understand the real-world challenges that industry is facing. Emerging aviation relies heavily on advanced automation to ensure safety, and Xwing is working to bring novel, safe aviation opportunities to the American public.”

Why it’s important: As more eVTOL aircraft take to the sky in dense urban areas, need will likely arise for artificially intelligent air traffic management softwares to assist pilots and air traffic control in airspace management. As these systems become more prevalent, systems like Xwing’s will likely eventually integrate with these to allow aircraft to act in accordance with this airspace guidance. Eventually, research being conducted by Xwing and NASA could mean that aircraft could fly completely autonomously, coordinating airspace with one another through software. It’s possible that under pilot supervision, we may be able to see these technologies begin developing within the next decade, as urban air mobility and autonomous flight evolves.

Source // XWing, AOPA, Revolution.aero

Last week, Volocopter revealed a fully integrated vertiport terminal for urban air mobility operations of the future. The vertiport was shared via a launch event which provided an opportunity to demonstrate the end-to-end passenger journey, from arrival at the vertiport terminal to aircraft boarding.

The vertiport testbed will be located at Pontoise-Cormeilles, was designed by Skyports in collaboration with Groupe ADP, and will be aircraft agnostic. Volocopter plans to utilize this new vertiport as a chance to test the full vertical integration of aerial mobility ecosystem. Most importantly, it facilitates collaboration between the key ecosystem partners, including technology pioneers, regulators and local partners such as the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC), suppliers and airlines. The vertiport will specifically enable testing of:

• Vehicle integration, ground movement procedures, and charging procedures
• Flight scheduling, situational awareness, and information exchange
• Passenger journey through the terminal, including security and check-in processes, biometric technologies (provided by SITA), passenger dwell time, and aircraft boarding.

A model of the VoloCity, which is being developed as Volocopter’s first certified aircraft for commercial services, was featured at the launch in addition to a crewed test flight of the 2X model – the only aircraft currently authorized for eVTOL test flights in France. The series of demonstrations by Skyports and Volocopter also featured displays of flight monitoring capabilities and digital operating systems, including Skyports’ vertiport operating systems and the VoloIQ.

Why it’s important: Volocopter’s partnership with Skyports and Groupe ADP will serve to advance integration testing for aerial mobility efforts of the future and also flush out advanced higher level operational challenges of vertiport implementation. While a great deal of these advances can be simulated and evaluated via analysis, representative testing of the end-to-end operational spectrum within aerial mobility and the associated checkouts of full (or representative) missions will help better prepare the industry for initial rollout of urban air mobility services.

Designed to look as sleek and accessible as an electric car, Xpeng’s X2 eVTOL prototype recently conducted a demonstration flight in Dubai at the SkyDive Dubai event, attended by representatives from the Chinese Consulate in Dubai, the Dubai International Chamber of Commerce, and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism. 

XPeng is a well-known and thoroughly established electric car maker in China, bringing in over $4B in revenue per year. For a few years now, XPeng has made clear its goal of expanding into air mobility, with the XPeng X2 (featured above) as one if its key products in development.

The XPeng X2 will be optionally-piloted, with semi-autonomous and eventually fully autonomous capabilities. With room for two passengers, the all-electric aircraft will be able to travel at speeds up to 80mph.

The demonstration flight in Dubai of the X2 was one of the aircraft’s first publicized flights. Although the aircraft was unpiloted in the air, attendees were able to sit inside the functioning aircraft while on the ground to get a sense of the passenger experience. Said Acting President and CEO Hassan Al Hashemi of The Dubai Chamber, which was involved in the planning of the event: “The first global public flight of the X2 flying car will change the game of future mobility. The flying car is the epitome of ambition, innovation and future-oriented vision that has always inspired Dubai and its leadership.”

According to XPeng’s chief Aviation Specialist Liu Xinyin, regulations should allow these kinds air vehicles to be used within limited regulated spaces in China within five years, in accordance with the Chinese government’s current goals. XPeng’s intention is to collaborate with governments in establishing physical and regulatory infrastructure for flight in urban areas.

Furthermore, XPeng plans on creating several kinds of products to expand into the aerial mobility space. Most recently, the company announced development of a propeller-lift add-on for its electric cars:

According to XPeng, this product will be a set of propellers that can fold into a box that will sit on top of electric cars. The vision is that at the push of a button, drivers will be able to unfold these rotors to allow the ground vehicle to transition to vertical flight. The company has already begun to create patents for these folding rotors. Learn more here.

Why it’s important: With competitors like EHang also targeting the aerial mobility space in China and Asia, Xpeng has affirmed solid progress of its eVTOL air vehicle with this demonstration flight. However, the aerial mobility efforts of XPeng also show a bigger picture – that the company is making moves to become a universal mobility provider for both ground and air based mobility. With the company already publicly traded, and already receiving immense success in its electric car business, it is well set up with funds and influence to develop and bring to commercialization many new kinds of aerial mobility products.

Sources // CNN, XPeng, DesignBoom

Related:

• XPeng raises $500 million to fund 2024 delivery of its flying car (October 2021)
• XPeng’s ‘X2’ Arrives in the Netherlands (March 2022)
• EHang 216 Completes Trial Flights Spanning Four Japanese Cities Over One Week (July 2022)
• EHang Secures Pre-Order for 100 EH216 AAVs from Indonesia’s Prestige Aviation (April 2022)

Earlier this week, the FAA released the airworthiness/certification criteria for Joby’s JAS4-1 eVTOL prototype and candidate for commercialization. This is the first of its kind and provides the public with a detailed certification plan for eVTOL platforms of the future.

The document draws its criteria largely from Part 23 for certification of fixed-wing general aviation aircraft, but also takes content from Part 33 for engines and Part 35 for propellers. The FAA also introduced new criteria specific to eVTOL because “no existing standard captured the powered-lift [aircraft’s] transitional flight modes.”

The certification basis considers various flight modes, configurations, and electric engine performance standards. For this, the FAA developed new criteria for safe flight and landing in the event of a loss of power to ensure the vehicle maintains adequate performance. The FAA is also considering new regulations for bird strike avoidance and protection as eVTOL aircraft are quieter than traditional fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

It is expected Joby’s JAS4-1 will be certified to existing safety level criteria for Part 23 (probability of catastrophic failure on the scale of 10^-7 or 10^-8). It’s also known that Joby’s aircraft will not be held to the 10^-9 safety level used on commercial aircraft by the FAA, but may face such a requirement with EASA.

A copy of the basis is available for viewing here.

Why it matters: Earlier this year, the FAA changed its certification basis for eVTOL aircraft. Rather than certifying under Part 23 alongside most general aviation fixed-wing aircraft, eVTOL platforms will be certified in their own special class. Joby has an advantage being the first in this category; as this may allow the company to help shape the criteria for all certified eVTOL platforms. Expect revisions to this document as the public and industry stakeholders provide comments for consideration.