Future Flight Magazine - July 2023

In this issue

Future Flight will specifically deal with all futuristic flight matters such as Drones, Urban Mobility and eVTOLs, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), Electric Aviation, Hydrogen Power, Space Flight developments, Supersonic Flight and many other innovations within aviation.

ARE DRONE LIGHT SHOWS SLOWLY REPLACING FIREWORKS DISPLAYS?

As the world moves towards a greener outlook from the highly dangerous fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes 5 November and New Year's Eve that terrorise the neighbourhood may be replaced by much safer drone light shows as a colourful alternative.

4 mins

PRIMOCO UAV AND AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE SIGN A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

Czech UAV manufacturer Primoco UAV SE executed a Memorandum of understanding with Airbus Defence and Space and its affiliate, Airbus DS Airborne Solutions, on cooperation in the area of unmanned aerial systems.

2 mins

INNOVATIVE STARTUP REVOLUTIONISING AERIAL MONITORING AND LOGISTICS WITH AUTONOMOUS AIRSHIPS

South African startup, Cloudline, is making a remarkable global impression with its groundbreaking autonomous airship technology. The innovative platform, developed in Stellenbosch South Africa, is set to transform the realm of aerial monitoring, data gathering and remote logistics.

2 mins

WHY HYBRID ELECTRIC? FEATURE BY AMPAIRE

This is a question Ampaire often fields from those interested in why we are not going full battery electric like the Tesla, or why we do not just switch to burning a new type of fuel such as hydrogen. The answer lies in the unique way that aircraft operate and the need to scale to a wide variety of aircraft sizes and missions.

10+ mins

ARE ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS PULLING OUT?

Last month NASA announced that it was abandoning its multipropellor electric X-57 Maxwell project as unflyable while Daher, Safran and Airbus whisked the cover off a multi-prop electric aircraft at the Paris airshow. They said it has flown 27 test hours. In addition Tecnam said the company was suspending work on its P-volt twin, an electric airliner based on the piston-powered P2012.

4 mins

SAFRAN SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH ELECTRA TO DEVELOP TURBOGENERATOR FOR ITS HYBRID-ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT

Safran Helicopter Engines has signed an agreement with Electra to develop the 600 kW electric turbogenerator propulsion system for the prototype of Electra's nine-passenger hybrid-electric short take-off and landing (eSTOL) aircraft.

1 min

NEW ROLLS-ROYCE: SMALL ENGINE SET TO BEGIN TESTS TO ADVANCE HYBRID-ELECTRIC FLIGHT

Last month Rolls-Royce announced its new small gas turbine that has been specifically developed to power hybrid-electric flight is set to begin testing. The engine is part of a turbogenerator system that is being developed for the Advanced Air Mobility market. This includes electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) Aircraft for Urban Air Mobility and Commuter Aircraft applications up to 19 seats.

3 mins

ARCHER STELLANTIS: PARTNERSHIP ENTERS 'EXECUTION PHASE'

California-based designer of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, Archer Aviation Stellantis, the multinational automotive manufacturing concern born of the merger of Italian American Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group jointly announced at the Paris Air Show that significant progress had been made on the two-companies' strategic manufacturing partnership.

2 mins

AUTOFLIGHT TO DEMONSTRATE RECORD-BREAKING EVTOL AT 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS

The record for the longest electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft flight does not belong to Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, or Volocopter, the three companies topping SMG Consulting's latest Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Reality Index.

4 mins

EVE AND BLADE EXPAND PARTNERSHIP TO ACCELERATE ELECTRIC AIR MOBILITY

Eve Air Mobility and Blade Air Mobility announced a significant extension of their longstanding partnership through a memorandum of understanding (MoU). This collaboration aims to transform air transportation in Europe, starting with France, by laying the foundation to integrate Eve's state-of-theart electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) or electric vertical aircraft (EVA) into Blade's European route network.

1 min

HELI-EASTERN TO PURCHASE LILIUM JETS

Munich-based Lilium the German aerospace concern announced that it had entered into an agreement with Heli-Eastern (formally, Shenzhen Eastern General Aviation Co., Ltd), a major low-altitude General-Aviation carrier and helicopter service provider operating in China's Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay region.

1 min

LILIUM BECOMES THE FIRST EVTOL MANUFACTURER AND EASA CERTIFICATION BASES

For a few years now, American electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) manufacturers Joby and Archer Aviation have stood alone at the top of the FAA's air taxi certification totem pole. Now, a German rival is joining them.

3 mins

WISK AERO SHOWS OFF SIXTH-GENERATION PROTOTYPE AUTONOMOUS EVTOL

Hot on the heels of the news that Boeing has taken on full ownership of the startup, Wisk Aero unveiled its latest iteration of eVTOL, a sixth-generation prototype that it would use to pursue FAA type certification, already underway of its autonomous, all-electric aircraft.

2 mins

ALEF 'FLYING CAR' GRANTED FAA SPECIAL AIRWORTHINESS CERTIFICATION

California-based Alef Aeronautics is a composite automotive / aviation concern about the business of developing a novel flying car dubbed the Model 'A' an appellation likely to incur unwanted attention of Ford's lawyers.

2 mins

AIRBUS REPORTS 'GREAT PROGRESS' ON H2-POWERED AIRCRAFT

Airbus has launched a demonstrator programme to explore a new architecture for the generation of non-propulsive energy (NPE) by replacing the APU in an A330 widebody with a hydrogen fuel cell system that will generate electricity. Known as HyPower, the hydrogen fuel cell demonstrator also aims to reduce CO2 emissions, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and noise levels associated with a traditional APU.

1 min

AIRBUS TEAMS-UP WITH LANZAJET TO BOOST SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL PRODUCTION

The MOU establishes a relationship between Airbus and LanzaJet to advance building SAF facilities which will use LanzaJet's leading, proven and proprietary Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) technology.

1 min

NEW SLS ROCKET ENGINE CERTIFIED

California-based manufacturer of rocket, hypersonic and electric propulsive systems for the space, defence, civil and commercial sectors Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA have completed a series of certification tests of the new RS-25E rocket engines by which future iterations of United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Space Launch System (SLS) will be powered.

2 mins

PULSAR FUSION TO BUILD NUCLEAR FUSION ROCKET ENGINE

UK aerospace concern Pulsar Fusion has undertaken construction of the largest practical nuclear-fusion rocket engine yet built. When fired in 2027, presuming the company's development timetable proves accurate the engine's eight-meter fusion chamber will generate exhaust speeds in excess of 500,000-miles-per-hour and temporarily supersede the sun as the hottest place in the solar system.

2 mins

BOOM SUPERSONIC CEO REMAINS OPTIMISTIC

After losing engine partner Rolls-Royce in September 2022, Boom Technology (trade name Boom Supersonic), the Denverbased American company speaks about the perilously speculative business of bringing to market a supersonic civilian airliner, announced in December 2022 that it will partner with three aviation companies to develop and build engines for its proposed Overture Super Sonic Transport.

2 mins

DESTINUS UNVEILS H2-POWERED SUPERSONIC DEMONSTRATOR

Founded in 2021 by Russian physicist and serial entrepreneur Mikhail Kokorich, Destinus is a European startup about the highly aspirational endeavour of developing a hypersonic hydrogen-powered passenger aircraft.

2 mins

Read all stories from Future Flight

Future Flight Magazine Description:

Since the main publication has become far too large, we have decided to publish a second monthly aviation magazine that will specifically deal with all futuristic flight matters such as Drones, Urban Mobility and eVTOLs, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), Electric Aviation, Hydrogen Power, Space Flight developments, Supersonic Flight and many other innovations within aviation.