Vertiports, flying in Greenland and more (The Allplane Newsletter #133)
There is a new podcast episode
Addison Ferrell is Director of Infrastructure at Skyports, a leading global developer of vertiports was on the podcast to talk about the infrastructure side of the advanced air mobility revolution.
Electric Aviation
CATL, the Chinese battery maker, has announced a battery that can recharge in 10min for a 400km range. Interesting in that CATL recently announced it was going to work on aviation-focused applications. READ.
Eviation is outsourcing the design of the new iteration of its Alice 9-seater aircraft to TLG Aerospace, of Seattle. This follows the firm’s first flight test. Interesting, since Eviation’s aircraft already stands out precisely because of its sleek design. READ.
Pipistrel announced it has a new battery for its Taurus Electro electric ultralight aircraft. READ.
Advanced Air Mobility
Archer closed a $215 million funding round. Here’s a twitter thread by its founder, Brett Adcock, sharing an investor’s deck. READ.
Ooops! Vertical’s VX4 prototype crashed during tests at Cotswold airport. Just a few days earlier it had completed its first untethered flight. READ.
Barron’s published a bullish piece on eVTOLs. READ.
The Bao’an district of Shenzhen, China, is to become an advanced air mobility development center, with three eVTOL developers now onboard (EHang, Autoflight and Lilium). READ.
Brazilian UAS developer Speedbird Aero closed a 10M BRL (US$2M approx.) to continue its development of unmanned aerial logistics drones. READ. Earlier this summer Speedbird Aero had been conducting a pilot programme to deliver mail in the Orkney Islands off the north tip of Scotland.
EVE and DHL are going to work together to assess the logistic needs of the eVTOL supply chain. Amidst the craze for new cool looking eVTOL designs, it is easy to overlook more mundane, but essential aspects such as supply chain resilience and the availability of parts and spares worldwide. READ.
Hydrogen Aviation
ZeroAvia has developed the first compressor specific for aviation fuel cells. Quite technical, but essentially, the compressor ensures the supply of oxygen for the fuel cell chemical reactions. READ.
Surcar, a Spanish startup airline that wants to launch flights in the Canary Islands sometime in the next year, is interested in ZeroAvia’s technology. READ.
Article on The Next Web about the hydrogen aviation sector. More and more publications from outside the aviation industry are paying attention. READ.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Japan is introducing a 10% SAF mandate for overseas flights by 2030. READ.
Here is a comprehensive summary of Japan’s initiatives in the field of SAF.
Other sustainable aviation news
Boeing announced the MD-90 aircraft that is to become the new X-66A sustainable propulsion demonstrator (also known as the Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) aircraft) has arrived at its Seattle facilities. READ.
Occidental Petroleum is acquiring Carbon Engineering for $1.1B. Carbon Engineering is a Canadian company involved in Direct Carbon Capture, which has aviation as one of its core markets. READ. In fact, just a few days earlier, Carbon Engineering had announced a deal with All Nippon Airways (ANA), with the latter buying carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits from the former.
Is replacing the US regional jet fleet with turboprops the low hanging fruit of aviation sustainability. See this presentation by ATR for some interesting figures.
Google teamed up with American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy to prevent contrail formation. It was successful on doing so, although it also increased fuel consumption a bit in the process. The overall effect was positive, though. READ.
What else in aviation?
Executive Spotlight interview with the CEO of a truly unique airline: Jacob Nitter-Sørensen, of Air Greenland. READ.
What’s inside a Boeing 777X test aircraft? Check out this video.
Want to buy a Blackhawk helicopter? A website auctions them for the civilian market. READ.
Embraer launched a “behind-the-scenes” youtube channel to showcase its technological prowess
The aerospace sector helps the city of Toulouse become the only French city outside Paris to see sizeable VC investment. In hyper-centralized France, Paris-based startups attract a wooping 80% of venture funding! Startups such as OpenAirlines, Ascendance and Aura Aero call Toulouse home. READ.
Japan Airlines Ventures has a new and really cool website.
The inner workings of the titanium market, a material essential for the modern aviation industry. READ.
A new cargo airline will fly Faroese salmon to the US almost daily. READ.