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Uncertainty Looms For Service Entry Of eVTOLs
eVTOLs are still new to the aviation sector and besides pioneering and adapting current battery technologies and also being limited by it there are also many hurdles regarding regulatory, classification and infrastructural facets needed to be overcome. Additionally, many of the manufacturers are running out of cash to continually finance the development and certification of their respective aircraft...
EHang Deliveries Increase But No AOC For Customers
EHang's EH216-S autonomous 2 passenger eVTOL is been delivering at high rates since being certified in October 2023. In a financial briefing on November 18 the Chinese company suggested it delivered 63 units in the three months ending on September 30. This represented a 29% increase on output for the second quarter. This is good news however, no Air Operator Certificates have been granted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China for operations of these craft despite the surge in deliveries...
Eclipse Aero Testing Daedalean AI’s Visual Awareness System
Eclipse Aerospace has been out of the news reel for several years but they are back into the cycle with news relating to testing Daedalean AI’s visual awareness system for detect-and-avoid traffic deconfliction scenarios. An Eclipse Aerospace 550 Light jet is the test bed for the technology -as seen below-. There is no certification path as yet and the technology is still in its early days of testing. However, the plan is Daedalean is pursuing an FAA Part 23 supplemental type certificate (STC). That STC will be for the PilotEye visual traffic detection system in collaboration with Avidyne...
Lilium To Initiate Insolvency Protection
Lilium was one of the initial leaders in the eVTOL space and 'til this point has been at the forefront in bringing its eVTOL to market. The German company is on the cusp of having a full-scale prototype to be flying in 2025. However, the company is about to file for insolvency protection as it tries to cue-up further capital to continue its operations...
After 6 Months Rolls Royce Completes Pearl 10X Testing
The Rolls Royce Pearl 10X powerplant will power Dassault's forthcoming Falcon 10X flagship business jet. Rolls Royce recently said that it has now concluded testing on that powerplant after 6 months of rigourous testing. The Pearl 10X took to the skies for the first time back in early April, 2024 attached to a pylon on Roll Royce's 44 year old Boeing 747 test bed...
Textron Aviation Returns To NBAA-BACE 2024
At the start of October Textron Aviation published a press released saying that they are now going to be attending the 2024 NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas. Just last month the airframer pulled its presence from this year's show to the surprise of the industry especially after hosting the pre-NBAA-BACE media briefing in Wichita. In a press released date October 2nd, the airframer said that 'In response to customer Feedback', Textron Aviation will return to the 2024 National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) with a static display of industry-leading Citation aircraft...
Third Major Airframer Skips 2024 NBAA-BACE
The 2024 NBAA-BACE due to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada will open its doors next month (October 22-24) with one less major exhibitor. In a stunning revelation, Textron Aviation has pulled out from participating in this year's event. It is also ironic that Textron hosted the pre-NBAA-BACE media briefing in Wichita and will not be taking part in the actual show itself. This will be three major aircraft manufacturers that have decided to skip the 2024 event...
Heart Aerospace Rolls Out First Full-Scale ES-30 Demonstrator
We have been hearing about Heart Aerospace for a while now but the company has not made a flight with a prototype as yet despite all the orders and press they have been receiving. However, the company recently rolled out its first full-scale technology demonstrator. The prototype is already under ground test trials and Heart Aerospace suggests that it will fly for the first time in the second quarter of 2025...
Jacksonville Hypersonic Test Facility Break Ground
It appears that Hermeus is taking the next step in their testing regime with the expected future construction of a hypersonic test facility in Florida. Hermeus is on the path to developing a hypersonic (MACH 5) aircraft they call 'Halcyon' to fly 20 passengers by the next decade. Currently the company is testing what they call the Quarterhorse which is a much scaled-down prototype. The last major update was that the Quarterhorse MK2 iteration prototype was testing the F100 engine...
Second Flight Of XB-1 Completed
On 24th of August Boom Supersonic updated on the progress of the XB-1 program. After the monumental first flight back on March 22, 2024, the second flight has now taken place and carried forward the test program further. During this flight, XB-1’s landing gear was successfully retracted and extended for the first time, which is typical of second test flights. Additional objectives for this flight test were for the XB-1 team to assess aircraft handling qualities and activate a new digital stability augmentation system – or roll damper – for the first time...
Pilatus Aircraft Expanding United States Footprint
The majority of Pilatus Aircraft's facilities are in Stans, Switzerland and has a United States presence already at Broomfield, Colorado but the airframer is now set to invest and expand even further in the U.S. In the short term the airframer wants to establish a sales and service facility at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (KSRQ) in Florida. In the long-term Pilatus is looking at an assembly plant at the same location! Pilatus executives and Airport Authority officials signed an agreement to develop 17 acres on the north side of the airport for Pilatus to construct a new state-of-the-art sales and service facility...
50 Speed Records In Less Than 50 Weeks For Global 7500
Normally Gulfstream is in the news regarding speed records with their flagship aircraft but Bombardier is increasingly taking that spotlight. Bombardier's current flagship the Global 7500 has now surpassed 50 speed records in less than 50 weeks of operation. Global 7500 has a top speed of Mach 0.925 and interestingly the top 10 of those speed records involved speeds above 1,000 kph...
Unpaved Surface Certification Received By Piper For M700 Fury
On the 12th of August, Piper Aircraft's flagship M700 Fury has now been certified to operate from unpaved surfaces such as gravel, coral, sand, clay, hard-packed soil mixtures, grass, turf or sod are good to land on with the latest approval from the Federal Aviation Administration...
Gulfstream Makes First Flight With G400
Gulfstream has announced today that the first test specimen of the brand new G400 has officially made its first flight and successfully completed it. It now officially kicks off the flight test regime for the type towards certification. The G400 is the latest offering from Gulfstream after the G700 and in-development G800. The G400 departed Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport at 9:04 a.m. and returned 2 hours, 54 minutes later, having reached a speed of Mach 0.85 and altitude of 41,000 feet/12,497 meters...
First Full-Scale Embraer EVE Prototype Unveiled
Patrons at the recently held 45th Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) had the chance to see a full-scale prototype of Embraers' EVE eVTOL. With that showing, it also made the company the latest eVTOL enterprise to successfully field a full-sized prototype which now joins a list of global companies who have done so already. In fact, eHANG in China has been the first followed by U.S manufacturers like Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation. In Europe, Lilium and Volocopter also have full-scale prototypes flying...
Second Specialized G550 Ordered By NOAA
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just announced it has ordered a second Gulfstream G550. This will go along with the previously announced G550 that is expected to replace the current Gulfstream IV-SP that has been in service with NOAA since 1996. The first aircraft was ordered in 2019 and will be delivered to NOAA in 2025. The second aircraft is expected to join the NOAA fleet in 2028...
Full-Scale VX4 Unveiled By Vertical Aerospace
Today Vertical Aerospace unveiled its most advanced and powerful full-scale VX4 prototype ahead of its flight test program. It will see the first use of Vertical’s powerful proprietary battery technology, designed and built in the Vertical Energy Center. Built in is rapid charging and the capability of cruise speeds of up to 150 mph...
MK-II Aurora By Dawn Aerospace
With the age of the Concorde nothing but memories and relegated to the history books, the continuation of supersonic flight outside of military applications has proved to be elusive. However, in recent years there have been a few companies that have fielded supersonic prototypes that were expected to fulfill different roles once certificated. The road to supersonic operation has not be easy for these companies though with at least one of them even going out of business in pursuit of this goal. Aerion was that company that is now defunct and they tried to develop the Aerion AS2...
Hydrogen-Run eVTOL Demonstrator Flies 5 Times As Far
Joby Aviation successfully flew a Hydrogen-powered eVTOL demonstrator over 500 miles in June 2024. All the news relating to eVTOL have been performance derived from an electric drive-train. H2Fly is Joby's German subsidiary and was instrumental in producing the hydrogen-electric propulsion architecture. The distance was 523 miles with the aircraft landing with approximately 10% of its hydrogen fuel remaining...
FAA-Mandated Fix Lags G700 Deliveries
Although Gulfstream has commenced deliveries of their flagship G700, the model has not picked up the pace in deliveries as the airframer would prefer. Model guidance from the airframer suggests that they intend to deliver 50 examples in 2024. After finally receiving Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification back in April and soon after by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in May, the company delivered an initial 2 in April...
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