Category: Infrastructure

Overair, the eVTOL and advanced air mobility company, announced their expanded headquarters in Santa Ana, California. Featuring new spaces for industrial and manufacturing teams as well as a built out corporate front office, the expansion provides space for the company to execute on their program development plans to reach full FAA certification by 2025.

Related: Overair Debuts Butterfly eVTOL Design

With proximity to John Wayne/Orange County Airport and top-notch residential communities, the new HQ features two buildings of 94,000 sq ft and 109,000 sq ft, respectively. “Building 1” will house the company’s corporate offices, shop lab, and cleanroom space for aircraft design, development and manufacturing, while “Building 2” will include space for aircraft integration and testing facilities.

“We’re excited to double our footprint and our commitment to Orange County and the city of Santa Ana. This new office space helps us promote a culture that allows everyone on the Overair team to achieve their personal goals and the company’s vision of making the world a smaller, cleaner place,” said Overair CEO Ben Tigner. “This expansion enables us to grow our talented team, add hundreds of jobs to our community and accelerate Butterfly’s introduction as the most robust and quietest electric vertical lift aircraft in its class.”

Building upon Southern California’s existing aerospace and technology hubs, the Overair campus will foster productivity and cultural unity across both corporate and engineering teams to achieve a full-scale Butterfly prototype by 2023, FAA certification by 2025, and commercial entry into service by 2026. Meanwhile, the company is looking to bring hundreds and eventually thousands of new, technology-focused jobs to Orange County. Overair plans to hire 1,000 employees over the next 3-5 years, including aerostructure and propulsion systems engineers looking to create green energy systems.

Why it’s important: The upgraded Santa Ana campus doubles Overair’s industrial and manufacturing floorspace and corporate offices, signaling next growth phase for the company. For Overair, the expansion also comes at an inflection point in the company’s growth, as their eVTOL vehicle Butterfly transitions from initial type design to preparation for commercialization and scaled production.

Airports across Italy and France including the likes of Rome, Venice, Bologna, and Nice have announced the creation of Urban Blue. The joint venture is between airport operators and administrators in these regions and will oversee the construction and management of eVTOL vertiports.

Urban Blue envisions their vertiports will transport airline customers on the final leg of their journey from their passenger jet to the city center. The scheme will be developed in partnership with Volocopter and is seeking additional partners.

In a statement released by Urban Blue, the company says it hopes to have airport eVTOL routes operated by Volocopter beginning in Summer 2024 in conjunction with the Summer Olympics hosted in Paris. EDF Invest, a major shareholder in Nice’s Aeroports de la Cote d’Azur, will financially back Urban Blue, and provide its bone fides as an established international player in the development of innovative and sustainable UAM.

“Urban Air Mobility represents a stimulating challenge, capable of mobilizing new resources and skills, and project ourselves into a future of innovative and sustainable mobility,” said Nazareno Ventola, CEO of Bologna Airport in a statement characteristic of those each Urban Blue partner issued. “Aeroporto di Bologna SpA wants to be the protagonist of this future, and the partnership that we are going to develop is an opportunity to be fully seized and exploited, in the interest of our shareholders and our stakeholders.”

Heading into 2022, Urban Blue will conduct technical and economic studies and begin master plans for its vertiports. The company will also begin researching various operational and management tactics for its fleet of Volocopter eVTOL crafts to ensure a smooth and efficient operation.

We are excited to share the news of our new partnership with our holding company, Atlantia, and @volocopter, the pioneer of #UrbanAirMobility, aimed at bringing electric air taxis to Rome.
Together, we will lay the foundation to bring #ElectricAirTaxis to Italy. pic.twitter.com/bGIi6BiuK5

— Aeroporti di Roma (@AeroportidiRoma) October 22, 2021

Why it matters: Investment in aerial mobility infrastructure will continue to rise as manufacturers get closer and closer to commercial viability. With several options to choose from, Urban Blue has wisely partnered with fellow EU-based Volocopter to operate city–airport shuttles at key tourism destinations across France and Italy. This will offer the flying public an exciting new way travel about the cities and completely transform passenger flow.

Eve Urban Air Mobility, a subsidiary of Embraer, has agreed to provide 100 of its eVTOL platforms to aviation taxi platform Ascent, to be used in Melbourne, Manila, Singapore, and Tokyo as soon as 2026. According to Andre Stein, president and CEO of Eve, “Ascent is one of the greatest players of Urban Air Mobility in the Asia-Pacific and its strong presence in the region makes it an ideal partner for Eve’s operations.The region holds a massive demand for transportation disruption that can be filled with our low-emission aircraft. This is the right recipe for sustainable growth.”

The Eve eVTOL aircraft. Photograph: Eve Urban Air Mobility

The news follows an earlier agreement in June 2021, and Ascent hopes to utilize Eve’s zero-emission low noise eVTOL aircraft and possibly their Urban Air Traffic Management (UATM) system, both of which are currently being trialled in conjunction with the UK Civil Aviation Authority. According to Clem Newton-Brown, CEO of air taxi landing infrastructure startup Skyportz and chair of the Advanced Air Mobility working group of the Australian Association for Unmanned Systems, “This announcement is very exciting – Embraer is one of the frontrunners in developing an electric air taxi and we welcome this announcement and look forward to working with them to develop routes and destinations. We are working with a number of air taxi designers who will be utilising our sites. Without the landing sites this new form of transport would be very limited. We have been working with property, freight and logistics partners for some years and have a stable of sites ready to take to the next step.”

Eve and Ascent’s partnership will also aid in Eve’s development of UATM solutions.“The creation of the UAM ecosystem requires innovative solutions, which is also a fundamental pillar of Embraer’s growth strategy for the coming years, and EmbraerX was built to address these needs,” said Daniel Moczydlower, president and CEO of EmbraerX, of which Eve is its first spin-off. “Through this partnership, we are jointly embarking on the first steps toward Australia becoming one of the world’s first Urban Air Mobility markets.”

The Eve eVTOL aircraft. Photograph: Eve Urban Air Mobility

Why it’s important: The partnership between Eve and Ascent looks to vastly accelerate the development of UATM solutions and aerial mobility in general, creating the initial infrastructure and resources for an aerial mobility ecosystem in several metropolitan areas. With this agreement, both companies envision a successful initial integration, followed by an elevation of aerial mobility operations to scale. 

Source // Australian Aviation

UAV Navigation has inked a partnership with Iris Automation to integrate its Detect & Avoid ‘Casia’ software into Iris’s advanced autopilot solution ‘VECTOR’. With this combined set of capabilities, UAVs will have the opportunity to detect and avoid potential airborne targets autonomously. 

UAV Navigation specializes in the design of guidance, navigation and control solutions for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) also known as Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) or drones. UAV Navigation’s flight control solutions are used by a variety of top tier aerospace manufacturers including high-performance tactical unmanned planes, aerial targets, mini-UAVs and helicopters. The company’s autopilots carry out advanced functions, such as controlling multiple target drones at 700 km/h, executing a fully automatic net landing of a drone onto a moving vessel at sea, and even converting a twin prop manned aircraft or turbine helicopter into a drone.

“The pace of innovation around autonomous aerial vehicles is rapid as the industry recognizes the potential for creating value. Integrating Iris Automation’s Casia detect and avoid technology into our VECTOR autopilot is another important step in the safety of autonomous flights for commercial operations. Our customers can now automatically command the drone to perform appropriate avoidance maneuvers, resuming their original flightpath once completed,” said UAV Navigation Head of Commercial, Carlo Lazaro.

The integration comes as Iris Automation releases Casia Software v2.2. The release also includes improvements to performance, track fusion and flight data uploads. Casia Software is embedded in all Casia systems, and uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect and classify aircraft intruders, similar to human pilots.

James Howard, co-founder and VP of Technology and Innovation at Iris Automation, commented on the partnership, “Partnering with UAV Navigation brings together two significant breakthroughs in safe, autonomous flight. Integrating autopilot systems with true detect and avoid, inclusive of uncooperative aircraft, is critical to enabling commercial operations at scale. Given the wide deployment of UAV Navigation’s autopilot solution this is major progress in opening up the skies.”

Why it matters: Detect and avoid software is a critical step in developing safe autonomous autopilots for aerial mobility applications. With its successful implementation, eVTOL vehicles can operate in dense urban environments with the ability to safely navigate the airspace. Expect to see UAV Navigation, Iris Automation, and others come into the spotlight as autopilot technologies mature and find their way onto commercial platforms.

Source: UAV Navigation Press Release

Elroy Air has successfully raised $40 million USD in its Series A funding round, for a total of $48 million to date, in order to continue building, testing and validation of Elroy’s autonomous cargo drone. The funding round saw financial support from Lockheed Martin’s venture capital arm, Marlinspike Capital, and Prosperity7, in addition to financing from existing investors Catapult Ventures, DiamondStream Partners, Side X Side Management, Shield Capital Partners and Precursor Ventures. 

Elroy Air’s autonomous cargo delivery drone, the Chaparral. Photograph: Elroy Air

According to David Merill, cofounder of Elroy Air, “The space of drone delivery has risen up quickly with small last-mile drones […] and now this new chapter is opening for middle-mile [cargo delivery],” Merrill said. “We’re excited that the technology is ready to support this, customers want it, and we’ve built a team and assembled the funds to go after it.”

Elroy Air’s flagship autonomous cargo aircraft, the Chaparral, has a highly effective design for regional autonomous cargo transportation, able to deliver 300-500 lbs of cargo for a range of 300 miles without a need for a pilot. The Chaparral will be a hybrid-electric aircraft, implementing electric propulsion through propulsors, a generator, and a turboshaft jet engine. In addition, The Chaparral’s cargo pod can autonomously attach and detach from the main body of the aircraft through a cargo handling function which utilizes GPS and sensor to autonomously pick up and drop off the pod. 

The Chaparral will see usage for both the military as well as the commercial market, provided it finishes flight validation with the US military as well as flight certification with the Federal Aviation Administration. Specifically, the Chaparral will require a Type Certificate as well as a Part 135 certificate in order to operate within U.S. airspace for commercial purposes. Currently, Elroy Air remains open to the exact services that it will provide commercially. It may provide the Chaparral’s systems to cargo delivery companies who wish to outsource fast regional delivery methods, or use the Chaparral in its own cargo delivery operations as well.

Why it’s important: The strong success of Elroy’s Series A funding round now opens up Elroy’s ability to proceed with development and certification of the Chaparral, which will be vital if Elroy wishes to use the Chaparral in domestic markets. While Elroy Air currently has no specific plans to enter the passenger transportation industry, the success of the Chaparral may open up future opportunities to develop further products in aerial mobility industry as well. 

Source // TechCrunch

Private aircraft operator Jet Linx has officially announced intentions to enter the eVTOL market following an agreement with Blade Urban Air Mobility. Through Blade, Jet Linx, along with other operators, will gain ownership of up to 20 total Beta Technologies Alia aircraft, which Blade recently made a reservation for.

According to a recent press release, “Blade has entered into an arrangement with Jet Linx, a leading U.S. aircraft operator supported by equity capital from RedBird Capital Partners relating to the purchase of EVAs from Beta. The arrangement enables Jet Linx to own and operate EVA (Electric Vertical Aircraft) for Blade flights, subject to entering into definitive agreements.”

Blade recently ordered up to 20 eVTOL ‘Alia’ aircraft from Beta Technologies for use in services. Photograph: Beta Technologies

Currently, Jet Linx offers aircraft management services and sells jet cards from 19 bases in the United States, and recently expanded into top private jet airports including Boston Hanscomb Field, Chicago Executive, Denver Centennial, Washington Dulles, and New York Teterboro. 

Blade will facilitate EVA purchases by Jet Linx and other Blade operators through minimum flight hour guarantees. The agreement includes a commitment for Blade operators or third-party financing sources who will enter into leasing arrangements with operators to purchase Beta’s first passenger-configured EVAs, scheduled for delivery beginning in late 2024.

These initial Beta EVAs will be deployed on routes between Jet Linx’ network of dedicated terminals in the northeast, where Beta has agreed to provide and install charging infrastructure at key locations.

Photograph: Beta Technologies

“Blade is laser-focused on its transition from conventional rotorcraft to Electric Vertical Aircraft. The ALIA’s extremely low sound footprint, coupled with its zero emissions design, will enable us to reduce the noise and environmental impact to the communities surrounding the existing heliport and airport infrastructure we currently use,” said Blade CEO Rob Wiesenthal, “ALIA is a full-scale EVA flying in piloted configuration almost every day. The team’s progress is formidable. Beta’s scheduled delivery beginning in 2024 is ahead of our current projected deployment of EVA in 2025. The transaction, consistent with our asset-light business model, allows us to leverage our significant flight volumes and third-party financing relationships to enable the purchase of BETA aircraft by our operator partners.”

Photograph: Beta Technologies

Why it’s important: Blade recently announced it would become a public company through a SPAC merger with Experience Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: EXPC), where Blade and Beta’s agreement relating to ALIA EVAs’ purchase is conditioned on the completion of the merger. With these agreements with Jet Linx and other aircraft operators and eVTOL developers in place, Blade is in a strong position to facilitate future aerial mobility travel services in the United States. 

Source // Private Jet Card Comparisons

Japan’s transport ministry has begun full-scale talks on safety standards and other key issues regarding commercial and private use of flying cars. The transport ministry is planning to establish standards on requirements for performance and safety, as well as a licensing system by the end of 2023, which would apply to all flying cars in Japan. Additionally, the ministry is also looking to establish related infrastructure by 2023 and for flying vehicles to start flying in safe areas where there are no people around.

According to The Japan Times, “The ministry will hold discussions on the performance of such vehicles, including vehicle stability, weight and flying range, and on safety standards such as collision avoidance systems. It will also debate whether to create a dedicated license for flying car pilots.”

The SkyDrive Inc. SD-03 flying car is test-flown during a demonstration to the media at the Toyota Test Field in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020.  Photograph: Toru Hanai/Bloomberg

Recently in April 2021, the transport ministry announced the establishment of a dedicated department “that will draw up guidelines as early as this autumn on procedures needed for companies to conduct test flights of vehicles currently under development,” according to The Japan Times. Gradually introducing such vehicles to transport goods, save lives at times of disaster and as a method of transportation in underpopulated areas and remote islands, the ministry plans to start flying car operations in urban areas in the 2030s. The ultimate goal is to produce flying vehicles that are maneuverable, fit for daily use, and cheaper than helicopters.

Japanese startup SkyDrive Inc. conducted a test flight of a pilotless vehicle controlled remotely in December 2018. The Tokyo-based company successfully conducted a manned test flight in August last year. According to the ministry, future tests conducted outdoors will require companies to obtain approval from the transport minister under the civil aeronautics act, and must also submit documents including blueprints of the flying car prototype, licenses including those to fly helicopters and a plan of measures to mitigate accident risks.

Photograph: SkyDrive

Why it’s important: The key goal for these talks is for Japan to establish a set of simple, easy to conduct procedures that still ensure performance and safety standards being met. In the future, the ministry plans to create guidelines that are easy for companies conducting tests for the first time to understand, where its new department will act as a point of contact, allowing companies to complete one-stop procedures, a move that should greatly improve flying car development in Japan.

Source // The Japan Times

Wisk, the aerospace company currently developing the eVTOL aircraft called the Cora, has proceeded with a “Transport Trial” to advance autonomous flight in New Zealand. In addition, Wisk will be integrating Insitu Pacific Pty Ltd, an unmanned aerial systems developer and Boeing subsidiary into their program. Integrating Insitu into the Transport Trial will allow Wisk to use Boeing’s expertise and advanced technology to the project, according to Wisk’s press release. 

According to Anna Kominik, Asia Pacific Region Director for Wisk, “New Zealand presents a unique opportunity and we are immensely proud to have been recognized by the New Zealand Government as the first airspace integration industry partner. New Zealand’s focus on decarbonizing its economy as part of the electric transport evolution directly aligns with Wisk’s mission to deliver safe, everyday flight for everyone through effective, accessible and sustainable urban air mobility solutions.”

Photograph: Cora

Wisk’s Transport Trial is part of New Zealand’s Airspace Integration Trial Program (AITP), which entails testing and demonstrating the integration of unmanned aircraft into airspace. Along with multiple government agencies and New Zealand’s Airways Corporation, Wisk will be performing flight tests, simulation work, and data analysis. The first phase of the Trial will focus on gathering and analyzing this data in order to support integrating eVTOL aircraft into the airspace system, according to a Wisk representative. 

According to Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk, “Wisk has always seen the distinct advantages of New Zealand, including the country’s globally respected Civil Aviation Authority and flexibility for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), These factors, combined with the advantages of testing and operating in a relatively un-congested airspace and the innovative culture of early adoption, makes New Zealand uniquely positioned as a leader for autonomous UAM integration trials.”

Photograph: Cora

“The aim of the Transport Trial, which is part of the New Zealand government’s, broader Airspace Integration Trial Program (AITP), is to safely evaluate, test, and demonstrate the integration of unmanned aircraft into existing airspace,” the representative for Wisk said. “The goal is to provide robust data that can be used by Governments, ANSP, and Civil Aviation Authorities to advance standards globally.”

“We are not providing details on the specifics around this yet,” the representative said. “However, it is important to stress that the Transport Trial is platform agnostic as its goal is to advance autonomous passenger transport in New Zealand – and other jurisdictions – as well as inform/support other trials in the AITP, focused around cargo delivery, agricultural services, and hazard management and monitoring services. This is part of our recognition that the operating ecosystem is as important as a certified aircraft.”

Photograph: Cora

Why it’s important: Wisk presents their latest progress on their development of the Cora in conjunction with the New Zealand government. Thanks to Boeing’s continued firm commitment to the aerial mobility sector. Additionally, with the promising outlook for New Zealand’s lockdown situation, Wisk looks to take full advantage of the potential early return for the Cora.

Source // Aviation Today