Category: Operators

Airbus is partnering with Japanese helicopter operator Hiratagakuen to develop advanced air mobility services in the Kansai region and beyond. This is a key addition to the company’s strong regional footprint and growing international network to pioneer the future of mobility.

Through this agreement, Airbus and Hiratagakuen will tackle crucial aspects required to launch a commercial transportation service with CityAirbus NextGen. As a major first step, the partners’ joint project to organise a simulation of ideal routes, concepts of operations and necessary equipment for safe eVTOL flights in the Kansai region, has been selected by the Osaka prefecture, with a demonstration flight scheduled for later this year.

With the aim to implement air mobility services beyond urban environments, the joint work of Airbus and Hiratagakuen will support the development of advanced air mobility solutions with CityAirbus NextGen, for use cases ranging from air medical services to commercial air transport and ecotourism in a variety of operational contexts. To reach this objective, and with the support of local stakeholders, Airbus and Hiratagakuen will use an H135 helicopter to test advanced navigation and communication technologies for safe operations of eVTOLs in urban environments, while simulating CityAirbus NextGen’s flight configuration.

Mitsuhiro Hirata, Vice President, Aviation Operation Division of Hiratagakuen, said “We are very pleased to conduct a demonstration flight in the Osaka-Kansai region with Airbus for the future of mobility, using the latest H135 helicopter. We have been operating Airbus helicopters for many years and highly appreciate their high safety, performance, operational reliability and proven after-sales support. We are aware that a revolution in air transportation is now approaching in the Osaka area, and we expect CityAirbus NextGen to play a central role in this revolution.”

Balkiz Sarihan, Head of UAM Strategy Execution and Partnerships at Airbus, said: “We are honoured to further our long standing collaboration with Hiratagakuen by working on this exciting journey towards zero emission flights. Their expertise in commercial air transport and air medical services operations makes them an ideal partner for defining the operational framework for advanced air mobility with CityAirbus NextGen in Japan”.

Hiratagakuen is a Kansai-based helicopter operator who specialises in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS), transportation of personnel, flight training, and maintenance. The company’s current fleet includes 14 H135 and two H145 helicopters.

In September 2021, Airbus unveiled its eVTOL prototype CityAirbus NextGen, to explore advanced air mobility technologies and bring urban air mobility services to life. The Company just announced the construction of a dedicated centre to test the aircraft’s systems in the lead up to its maiden flight. Airbus is also working closely with industrial and institutional partners to lead the development of urban air mobility ecosystems, as recently announced with ITA Airways in Italy, or through the launch of the Air Mobility Initiative in Germany.

Related: MAGicaALL Motors Selected to Power CityAirbus NextGen

Why it’s important: The relationship between Airbus and Japan dates back over 60 years, during which over 600 commercial and fixed wing and rotorcraft have been delivered to Japanese operators. Airbus leads the Japanese helicopter market with over 50% market share in the civil and parapublic sectors, and over 370 helicopters in service with 100 customers. In Kobe, Airbus’ helicopter facilities offer a strong suite of helicopter products, training services and turnkey solutions across emergency medical services, law enforcement, electronic news gathering, and parapublic segments. The segue to eVTOL operations should be a relatively seamless transition as the company relationships and much of the urban air and ground infrastructure has already been established via these longstanding relationships.

Source // Airbus press release

Manta Aircraft and Avionord, a private air transport company highly specialized in medical air transport, have entered into an agreement to field as many as 15 hybrid-electric long-range vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft derived from the Manta Aircraft “ANN” platform in its medical services configuration. Avionord also invests in Manta Aircraft and takes a stake in the company. Deliveries are expected to start in 2026.

Because the hybrid-electric Manta aircraft features vertical take-off and landing and long-range flight capabilities, it is able to connect between helipads at hospitals in several different cities. This, combined with Manta’s low infrastructure requirements, low noise emissions, and cost effectiveness over traditional helicopters, results in new point-to-point capabilities and economic opportunities for regional medical transportation missions.

Above: The Manta eVTOL could provide quicker response times, smoother transport, and faster transportation to hospitals in cases of auto accidents and similar emergencies over traditional ground-based ambulances.

Lucas Marchesini, CEO of Manta Aircraft, comments: “We are very pleased of this partnership with Avionord, who have recognized the uniqueness of the ANN platform in terms of range, pushing into the direction of creating a real use case that will contribute to the rapid establishment of Advanced Air Mobility. From the outset, the design of the aircraft was planned for a relevant range and speed in combination with the low infrastructure requirements and overall costs at a fraction of the cost of a helicopter, in order to be suitable for this kind of operations.”

Said Avionord CEO Eugenio Cremascoli: “We are honored to be working with Manta Aircraft. After analyzing the market and considering our time-critical missions, we see that the Manta ANN platform is today the only eVTOL offering a range of several hundred kms, which is useful for the missions to transport quickly organs for transplantation from one hospital to another, avoiding being dependent on airports and road transport. The ANN eVTOLs will enable us to reduce the transportation time of the organs, that have a limited life when not connected to the dedicated machines, using aircraft with a reduced operating cost.”

Above: A Manta eVTOL is rendered performing a medical rescue mission for snow skiers

The investment of Avionord in Manta Aircraft follows the investment of other Italian tech companies and of the State-led CDP VC, in the effort to expedite the creation of an Italian AAM ecosystem. Manta is currently developing several kinds of hybrid-electric, long-range, vertical and short take-off and landing air vehicles designed for regional air mobility, planning to begin certification of the first two-seat, multi-purpose model ANN2 in 2023.

Why it’s important: The agreement between Manta Aircraft and Avionord establishes a promising partnership that will foster the development of an aerial mobility ecosystem in Italy, both for emergency services and for passenger-carrying operations. The initial use of Manta’s aircraft is planned mostly in special transports of organs for transplants, transport of equipment for re-perfusion of organs destined for transplantation, and for possible rapid-intervention operations, but later uses will likely include passenger transportation, which is Manta’s eventual goal.

Source // Manta Aircraft

Read more about Manta here

Wisk Aero, the Bay-Area California based Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company, is partnering with Skyports to integrate autonomous, electric, vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft operations at vertiports and other ground-based infrastructure. The partnership marks a significant milestone as a collaboration between a vertiport developer-operator and an autonomous eVTOL developer in the U.S.

While AAM services will initially launch with piloted vehicles, Wisk, Skyports, and the broader industry recognize that autonomy is the key to unlocking the scalability, accessibility, and affordability needed to realize the full potential and total addressable market of AAM. Wisk and Skyports are defining autonomous eVTOL vertiport operations in order to ensure that vertiports and other ground-based infrastructure will be capable of supporting the autonomous operations needed for long-term success.

The partnership is evaluating core areas, including physical aircraft considerations (functions, capabilities, requirements, interfaces, and support), passenger accommodation, schedule management, ground operations management, final approach and takeoff management, navigational aids, situational awareness, contingency management, and airspace design.

The partnership has released a first-of-its-kind Concept of Operations (ConOps), which identifies how autonomous eVTOL aircraft and operators will integrate with vertiports, including interactions with Providers of Services for UAM (PSUs). The ConOps outlines the upgrades, retrofits, and procedure changes that will be required to accommodate safe operations for autonomous eVTOL aircraft. It also defines the journey of an autonomous eVTOL aircraft and its relationship to UAM-specific, aircraft-agnostic infrastructure and the necessary systems and interactions between the aircraft, the aircraft’s fleet operator, and the vertiport.

Related: Wisk Aero to Bring Advanced Air Mobility to Southern California

“We are excited to partner with Skyports, a leader in vertiports and AAM infrastructure,” said Gary Gysin, CEO of Wisk. “It is critical that future operations are autonomous for safety, scalability, and affordability. With this ConOps, Wisk and Skyports are helping to define those future operations while ensuring the long-term success and full potential of this industry.”

“It’s important that infrastructure built today can accommodate the aircraft of tomorrow,” said Duncan Walker, CEO of Skyports. “We are thrilled to be partnered with Wisk as they push the bounds of aircraft systems innovation. The ConOps and our continued work on the development of vehicle-agnostic vertiports and ground-based infrastructure will ensure that this industry is well prepared to safely integrate autonomous operations in the future.”

Why it’s important: To date, the AAM industry has been heavily focused on the development of aircraft and associated technology. Today’s announcement and the release of the ConOps highlights the critical importance of evaluating operational considerations for infrastructure and other ecosystem elements as the industry approaches the launch of both piloted and autonomous operations.

Overair has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bristow Group Inc. The two companies plan to collaborate on the development of the Overair Butterfly‘s commercialization plans.

Rendering of the Overair Butterfly eVTOL with Bristow Group branding

Bristow has pre-ordered 20 to 50 Butterfly aircraft and both companies will work together to develop an operations development framework focusing on vehicle design considerations, key performance parameters, FAA certification, flight planning best practices, data sharing for improvement of flight operations, connected vehicle and health monitoring strategies, configuration and maintenance protocols, infrastructure, ground support operations, connected fleet management, and government affairs and promotion of eVTOL operations.

“Bristow’s decades of vertical lift experience will greatly enhance Butterfly’s path to commercialization. Their operating insight, combined with our development and execution of the Butterfly program, will position Butterfly to serve Bristow as a valuable workhorse on high-density routes,” said Ben Tigner, Chief Executive Officer of Overair. “We’re elated to learn from Bristow’s practical expertise and ultimately deliver an aircraft optimized for their use cases.”

“Our MOU with Overair allows us to advance our leadership position in the vertical transportation market that we’ve built over the past 70+ years and will now set the stage for the next generation of vertical flight. Our collaboration facilitates expansion into new high-density geographic markets with sustainable, innovative and efficient vertical lift and aerial transport services,” said Bristow President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Bradshaw. “As the global leader in vertical lift, Bristow’s operational expertise and efficiency, supported by the trust and confidence of our customers, can safely bring eVTOL aircraft into the market.”

Rendering of OverAir’s Butterfly in forward flight

Bristow, one of the world’s largest and most experienced helicopter operators, plans to use the unique attributes of Overair’s eVTOL aircraft to help reduce its carbon footprint. The company recognizes the benefits of a varied fleet and intends to diversify its existing operations with Butterfly and other eVTOLs for commercial air taxi routes in metropolitan areas. Notably, of the vehicles Bristow is currently considering, Butterfly is the only aircraft with a vectored thrust configuration.

Bristow expects to optimize its fleet management strategy by matching eVTOL attributes with the most economically productive mission profiles. Butterfly’s low-noise profile, payload capacity and ability to fly in a broad range of weather conditions will be well-suited for high-density, noise sensitive routes in geographies with varied environmental concerns. The Butterfly aircraft features low maintenance costs and mechanical simplicity, which enables high vehicle uptime and utilization, increasing operator margins and passing value on to riders.

Overair’s Butterfly on the landing pad

Overair’s experience developing military-grade rotorcraft propulsion systems is expected to unlock a highly strategic collaboration between the two companies. Work is set to begin immediately, focusing on FAA certification planning, a robust safety operating culture, and other unique aspects of vertical flight operations.

Why it matters: Bristow brings extensive experience in commercial operations to Overair’s expertly-designed eVTOL aircraft. Together, the two will use their expertise to effectively integrate eVTOL operations into Bristow’s existing fleet, introducing new possibilities for the companies’ offerings and passing value on to customers.

China’s eHang claims that “in the next few months” it may achieve full type certification for its autonomous EH216 eVTOL aircraft. This would enable the company to begin commercial operations, potentially years ahead of what many of its air taxi competitors currently forecast.

EHang’s rapid progress can largely be attributed to a consensus with the CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) which, according to Founder, Chairman and CEO Huazhi Hu, is based “on the guiding principle that operational trial flights can gradually be carried out, while advancing the certification progress.”

The company says it’s already completed around 2,800 “operational trial flights” across seven “air mobility trial operations” providing aerial sightseeing and short-distance mobility services in Guangzhou, Hezhou, Shenzen, Zhaoqing and Sanya. Most recently, the EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle (“AAV”) completed its debut flight demonstration for aerial sightseeing in the world-famous tourism hotspot of Bali, Indonesia. This demonstration flight was conducted under EHang’s cooperation with an Indonesian local partner Prestige Aviation, a subsidiary of Prestige Corp.

The EHang 216 demonstrated a five-minute autonomous flight at the scenic Villa Blackstone Beach, Bali. VIP guests who witnessed the flight demo include Bambang Soesatyo, Chairman of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly, Putu Astawa, Head of the Bali Tourism Office and Rudy Salim, CEO and Founder of Prestige Corp.

The EHang 216 conducts a flight demo in Bali, Indonesia

Prior to the flight demo, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Republic of Indonesia issued the Special Certificate of Airworthiness for the EHang 216 AAV, enabling it to be the Indonesia’s first passenger-grade AAV approved for a public unmanned flight demo.

The Director General of Civil Aviation of the Republic of Indonesia issues the Special Certificate of Airworthiness for the EHang 216.

Bambang Soesatyo, Chairman of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly, said, “We are entering a new chapter of transportation. As a modern transportation solution, EHang 216 will change our lifestyle in the future.”

Rudy Salim, CEO and Founder of Prestige Corp, said, “Prestige Aviation aspires to be the pioneer to provide smart city innovations with digital-based transport implementation. As an AAV, EHang 216 can become an effective, affordable mobility and efficient solution for Indonesian air mobility.”

Hu Huazhi, Founder, Chairman and CEO of EHang, said, “The successful flight demo fully showcased EHang 216’s potential for efficient island hopping and air transportation. We are pleased to join hands with Indonesian local partners to bring our leading AAVs and UAM solutions to Indonesia, one of the most promising UAM markets in Southeast Asia. Our global network of renowned and reliable partners continues to expand, and we believe this is a significant step for our sustainable, consistent success. We look forward to long-term business development prospects in Indonesia.”

Why it’s important: EHang’s impressive number of completed trial flights is in addition to the 20,000 autonomous trial flights the EH216 has taken in 11 different countries – far more, the company claims, than any other manufacturer. “With abundant operational experience accumulated and safety records built,” reads the earnings report, “the Company expects to turn these operational trial flights into commercial ones after the approval of the EHang 216 Type Certificate is obtained.”

Sources // eHang press release; New Atlas

Hyundai Motor Company and General Motors recently announced that they are pushing ahead with developing flying cars, with the South Korean company expressing optimism it could have an air-taxi service in operation as soon as 2025.

A GM executive said it could take until 2030 for air-taxi services to overcome technical and regulatory hurdles and reach commercialization. Munoz, who is also CEO of Hyundai North America, previously said urban air taxis would be in operation at major U.S. airports by 2028 and perhaps earlier. He told Reuters in a recent interview that it could possibly happen before 2025. “We see this market as a significant growth opportunity,” Munoz said, adding he was “very confident” of the technology’s development.

“I think that there’s a long pathway here,” Pamela Fletcher, vice president of GM’s Global Innovation team, said at the Reuters event. “2030 is probably a real commercial inflection point.” She added: “It’s a very nascent space. There’s a lot of work to be done on the regulatory side, as well as the actual technology side.”

GM flying car concept unveiled at CES 2021. Source // Reuters

The zero-emissions aircraft, which take off and land like helicopters and carry passengers and cargo, are being developed by a number of startups as well as aircraft makers and automakers. The companies in pursuit of this new technology and service are currently at various stages in the road to commercialization; a handful have demonstrated numerous successful flights and have already begun certification efforts with regulatory agencies, while others attempt to establish a foothold with a worthy full-scale prototype.

Meanwhile, Hyundai is ahead of its previously stated timetable for rolling out air-mobility vehicles, Jose Munoz, the company’s global chief operating officer, said in an interview broadcast on Monday at the Reuters Events Car of the Future conference. Hyundai first showcased the flying-car concept it developed in collaboration with ride-hailing company Uber in early 2020. The vehicle will be 100 percent electric and use rotors to cruise at an altitude of about 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the ground, taking off and landing like a helicopter. Hyundai is targeting a passenger capacity of five to six people, and its vehicle will be deployed primarily from highly congested urban centers to airports.

Why it’s important: The urban air mobility continues to be touted by industry professionals as the next frontier of transportation infrastructure across the globe. Morgan Stanley predicts the flying car market will reach $320 billion by 2030 as automakers such as General Motors, Toyota and others are developing the technology, and Hyundai’s expedited efforts toward the establishment of an aerial mobility service will likely motivate the company’s competitors to pursue similar efforts in the near future.

Source // Reuters