Joby Aviation, a pioneer in the development of an electric air taxi, has raised $590 million in Series C funding led by Toyota Motor Corporation. Prior investors, including SPARX Group, Intel Capital, Capricorn Investment Group, JetBlue Technology Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, and AME Cloud Ventures, also contributed to the round, and were joined by new investors Baillie Gifford and Global Oryx (ALJ family’s investment arm).
Palo Alto, CA, Jan. 14, 2020 -- OPENER, a pioneer of aerial vehicles for consumer travel, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ben Diachun as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). OPENER is producing BlackFly, the world’s first fixed-wing, all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) personal ultralight aircraft. Founder and former CEO, Marcus Leng, will oversee next-generation manufacturing and international operations as Chairman of the Board.
Geely's “integrated world” three-dimensional smart travel ecology is flourishing steadily in 2019. After the wholly-owned acquisition of Terrafugia in 2017, Geely quickly established the Terrafugia China R&D team to carry out independent research and development, and support the development of urban air mobility.
In mid-December 2019, Terrafugia, a subsidiary of Geely Technology Group, successfully conducted its first test flight of the TF-2A sub-scale demonstrator.
Terrafugia co-founder and president Dr. Carl Dietrich has announced a new urban air mobility (UAM) venture, Jump Aero.
With the tagline, "We will empower our heroes to become superheroes," the company aims to "enable first responders to fly to the scene of an emergency as fast as possible. We will cut emergency response time in half – helping save thousands of lives each year."
On Dec. 4, Disney unveiled its new “Rise of the Resistance” ride at the grand opening of its new “Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge” theme park in Orlando, Florida. Video of the nighttime event shows the two T-70 X-Wing fighters take off vertically, rotate and then translate forward away from the huge crowd. TheDrive.com website reported that the interceptors used the unmanned Boeing Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV) eVTOL aircraft as the platform for the two-thirds scale spaceships.
On Dec. 11, LIFT Aircraft provided a status update of their Hexa multicopter. The company has now built and tested three working prototypes to inform key design improvements for production.
Jaunt Air Mobility has selected additional partners for its Reduced Rotor Operating Speed Aircraft (ROSA™) electric rotorcraft. BAE Systems is collaborating with the company to explore the development of electric energy management systems for UAM vehicles through a memorandum of understanding (MOU).
On Dec. 10, Harbour Air, North America’s largest seaplane airline conducted a successful flight of what is claimed was “the world’s first all-electric commercial aircraft.”
John Deere and Volocopter GmbH are collaborating on a heavy-lift utility drone for agriculture. A demonstrator model of the VoloDrone equipped with a John Deere crop protection sprayer, which had made tethered flights, was presented on Nov. 10–16 in Hanover, Germany, at the AGRITECHNICA trade show. With a potential payload of 440 lb (200 kg) and a maximum range of 25 miles (40 km), Volcopter said “the VoloDrone is able to cover an enormous area, especially under difficult operating conditions.”
LAS VEGAS, January 6, 2020 – Uber and Hyundai Motor Company have today announced a new partnership to develop Uber Air Taxis for a future aerial ride share network and unveiled a new full-scale aircraft concept at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
