On July 27, Visp, Switzerland-based Dufour Aerospace announced that it had completed the first phase of flight testing of its subscale eVTOL technology demonstrator, the aEro 2. “Building on our experience in manned electric flight with our aerobatic plane aEro 1, we are proud to announce that we have completed the first phase of flight testing of our VTOL technology demonstrator aircraft.
In mid-December 2019, Terrafugia, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (ZGH) — a global mobility technology group headquartered in the city of Hangzhou in southeast China’s Zhejiang Province — successfully conducted its first test flight of the TF-2A sub-scale demonstrator. The fullscale TF-2A eVTOL aircraft was unveiled on June 22.
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The Santa Cruz Sentinel captured photos of the Joby Aviation five-seat prototype being airlifted from the company’s facility at Bonny Doon, California (outside of Santa Cruz) on July 7.
Massachusetts-based Alakai revealed to NewAtlas.com on July 9 that it was developing a second-generation liquid hydrogen-powered Skai eVTOL prototype. Originally unveiled in May 2019 (see “Flying in the Skai with Hydrogen, Vertiflite, July/August 2019), the first-generation prototype made tethered tests last year.
European consultancy Roland Berger presented the conclusions of a UAM study at the virtual Farnborough International Airshow Connect event on July 23. In the webinar, entitled “Global Urban Air Summit: Future of UAM,” the company stated that it expected some 7,000 eVTOL aircraft will be carrying passengers in UAM services by 2030, 47,000 by 2040 and 161,000 by 2050 (all analysis was marked as “Pre-COIVD-19”).
Honeywell International, Inc., announced on June 16 that it had created a business unit, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), to tap the opportunities in the developing UAS and urban air mobility (UAM) industries. The new division under Honeywell’s Aerospace segment will include engineering and sales resources to cater to customers’ requirements in the UAM market.
Yavne, Israel-based Urban Aeronautics announced on June 11 that it had signed an agreement with hydrogen fuel-cell innovator HyPoint, Inc., with offices in Menlo Park, California. Urban Aeronautics, the developer of the CityHawk Fancraft, and HyPoint, a leader in next-generation, high-power, high-temperature proton-exchange-membrane (HTPEM) hydrogen fuel-cell systems, will explore the development of an advanced version of the CityHawk eVTOL powered by HyPoint’s cutting-edge, hydrogen fuel-cell stack technology.
June 12 saw the much-awaited unveiling of Beta Technologies’ Alia eVTOL when the company authorized journalist Eric Adams (a past Vertiflite contributor) to release photos and information on the aircraft.
Airbus Helicopters posted a video on July 31 stating that its “CityAirbus demonstrator performed its first fully automatic flight: take off, stabilisation in flight and landing” at its Donauwörth, Germany, plant.
On June 3, Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Kitty Hawk and Alex Roetter, president of the Kitty Hawk Flyer program, announced on its website blog that it was ending its ultralight eVTOL program. “We built and flew 111 aircraft. More than 75 people flew Flyer. We proved to ourselves that people could safely operate Flyer — and become a pilot — with less than two hours of training. On a single day, we trained 50 new novice Flyer pilots, none of whom were licensed...
