Lots of first flights, A220-500 & more (The Allplane Newsletter #101)
New podcast episode
Josef Mouris, co-founder of ELECTRON shares how is it like to launch a startup to build and operate electric airplanes. LISTEN.
Jean-Marc Bourreau, partner at government advisory firm Consulum, explains the Saudi initiative to define some harmonisation rules for air travel in, for example, situations of pandemic. Clarity and transparency are the key goals. LISTEN.
Electric Aviation
Eviation’s Alice had its long awaited debut! Here you can see it for real:
Icelandair is also interested in Heart Aerospace’s new ES-30. READ.
Advanced Air Mobility
Vertical Aerospace completed the first flight of the VX-4. First new British aircraft to complete a first flight in a very long time! READ.
Boeing and Wisk have unveiled concept of operations for the latter’s unmanned eVTOL concept. This part caught my eye: “while the aircraft will be automated, Boeing and Wisk recommend the creation of ‘fleet operations centers’ where ‘multi-vehicle supervisors’ will monitor flights, implement air traffic control instructions to maintain aircraft separation, and ensure safe operation of the flight”. READ.
Chilean firm EcoCopter partnering with Airbus to bring the CityAirbus to Latin America. Interesting the it names Chile, Ecuador and Peru as potential markets. So far Brazil and Colombia were seeing most of the action as far as planning and projects. READ.
Executive jet operator GlobeAir wants to use Lilium eVTOLs in the French Riviera. READ.
Japanese eVTOL developer SkyDrive has presented its two-seater SD-05:
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
SAF deals just keep coming. This time is Austrian energy firm OMV committing to supply nearly 1M tones of fuel to Lufthansa Group (800k) and Ryanair (160k). READ
Supersonic startup Boom has found a SAF supplier (Air Company), but…it has no engine to feed it to yet!
Cathay Pacific is procuring 38M gallons of SAF from Aemetis. The fuel will be produced and delivered in California. READ.
Hydrogen aviation
Easyjet has presented its net zero road map for 2050. Main takeaway is that it is betting on hydrogen together with Rolls-Royce. READ
Textron is going to fit the sustainable version of its Cessna Grand Caravan with ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-powered powertrain. Here’s a key point that favours this aircraft “Its high-wing design makes it a strong candidate for mounting hydrogen fuel tanks under the wings, ensuring operators can maintain seat capacity or cargo space”. READ.
Flapper, a Brazilian company that so far had been active in the field of electric flight and eVTOLs, is apparently partnering with Swiss-based hypersonic aircraft startup Destinus (which I had the chance to write about in this article for The Points Guy). The focus would be on high value cargo. Hypersonics are tough…although potentially transformative at many levels. READ.
Other interesting things in sustainable aviation
I had somehow missed this, but REGENT Craft completed the first flight of its Seaglider ground effect vehicle last month. Here is the video
You can also read this story about the seaglider that I wrote back in the day for CNN
What else in aviation?
Big order for the Boeing 737 MAX from Canada’s WestJet, 42 firm and 22 options. READ.
And it looks like Vueling is soon going to be a MAX operator too (the planes coming from a pre-existent IAG order). READ
Airbus’ auction of A380 parts is finally going ahead on 13, 14 and 15 Oct. READ.
Norse Atlantic follows so far the steps that Norwegian took a few years ago when launching its long haul operations. The new Norway-based carrier has received its British AOC. READ.
Virgin Atlantic to join Skyteam. READ.
Airbus A220-500 on the cards? Here’s a French story that hints at this possibility. READ.
New updates in the 2022 airline bankruptcy count. READ.