Astro Aerospace of Dallas, Texas, has been developing manned and unmanned derivatives of its Astro design based on the PassengerDrone (shown) — one of the first eVTOL demonstrators, with first manned flights in 2017 (see “Astro's Elroy Blasts Off,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2018).
In the 8th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium held by VFS in January, Detroit, Michigan-based Airspace Experience Technologies (ASX) announced its latest electric tilt-wing configuration, Sigma Six. The company hopes to fly its full-scale Block One flying demonstrator as soon as the third quarter of this year, following completion of motor/propeller/thermal management verification by spring.
Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, Inc., announced on Jan. 26 that it had obtained FAA Special Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) airworthiness certificate for its Transition roadable aircraft (with automobile certification to follow in 2022).
The UK government’s Future Flight Challenge announced in January that it had selected the company Urban Air Port, partnered with Hyundai Motor Group and the Coventry City Council, to develop the Air-One skyport hub to evaluate eVTOL aircraft operations.
In order to facilitate a UAM ecosystem around the Paris region, the RATP Group, Groupe ADP and Choose Paris Region launched an international call for interest on Oct. 1. Some 150 applications from 25 countries were received and 30 winners were selected, with the intent to begin conducting experiments in June 2021 in the test area at the Pontoise-Cormeilles-en-Vexin airfield, which was inaugurated on Sept. 30.
The Single European Sky (SES) Air Traffic Management (ATM) Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR-JU) announced on Jan. 21 that it had formed a consortium 17 companies and other organizations to design and test concepts of operations for various AAM (aka urban air mobility, UAM) applications within the framework of U-space — the European Commission’s Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) System that seeks safe and secure integration of drones and other autonomous aircraft into Europe’s airspace.
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.
