Bruchsal, Germany-based Volocopter GmbH announced on Jan. 15 that the FAA had “positively accepted” its application for concurrent type certificate validation on Dec. 22, setting the basis for Volocopter to bring its VoloCity electric air taxi services to the American market.
On Dec. 28, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released its long-anticipated final rules for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The new rules will require remote identification of drones and allow operators of small drones to fly over people and at night under certain conditions.
Jaunt Air Mobility and its partners made several announcements before and since the beginning of 2021. On Dec. 16, the company announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with VerdeGo Aero to explore the development of a hybrid-electric version of its Jaunt slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) electric rotorcraft.
The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) has unveiled three lift-plus-cruise eVTOL aircraft prototypes. The company’s hybrid-electric VTOL project was started in 2019 and the company’s Beijing Civil Aircraft Technology Research Center (BCATRC) has built two prototypes.
Bell has continued developments of its Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) tailsitting eVTOL cargo drone. On Dec. 9, Bell flew its APT 70 with 110 lb (50 kg) of payload over an 8-mile (12.9-km) route at Bell’s testing site near Fort Worth, Texas.
Designers of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft typically envision multi-propeller air taxis controlled by RPM or collective blade pitch. The Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University built a hovering multi-rotor testbed to try rotor speed, collective pitch and helicopter-style cyclic pitch in normal and emergency situations.
A year after the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft industry saw its first start-up valued at more than $1B (see “The First Electric VTOL Unicorn: Joby Aviation,” Vertiflite, March/April 2020), a growing number of companies across the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry are looking to merge with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) that is already publicly traded to raise the funds necessary to bankroll future growth.
Archer, a leading Urban Air Mobility (“UAM”) company and developer of all-electric vertical take-off and landing (“eVTOL”) aircraft, and Atlas Crest Investment Corp. (NYSE: ACIC), a special purpose acquisition company, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination that would result in Archer becoming a publicly listed company.
Joby Aviation, a transportation company developing an all-electric, vertical take-off and landing (‘eVTOL’) aircraft, which it intends to operate as a commercial passenger aircraft from 2024, today announced that it has begun generating revenue as part of achieving another major milestone in the Agility Prime program.
In May 2020, Joby Aero filed a 44-page patent application for a “VTOL Aircraft Using Fixed Forward Canted Rotors to Simulate Rigid Wing Dynamics.” It was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 7, 2021, as Publication No. 2021/0001979.
