Aviation Today reports that Joby Aviation CEO JoeBen Bevirt says the company’s eVTOL aircraft is 84% on its way to completing FAA Stage 3 certification requirements. The company “checked off several milestones in the past three months that bring it ever closer to launching commercial passenger flights in 2025.” Joby is “ramping up production at its pilot manufacturing facility in Merina, Calif., with one aircraft in final assembly and two more in production.” It also has “chosen Dayton, Ohio, as the site for the first scaled manufacturing facility, after receiving promises for $325 million in state and local incentives and benefits, Bevirt said.”
Full Story (Aviation Today)
Tag: Aeronautical
USSF Prioritizing Modernization of Spaceports
Space News reports that the need to “modernize US spaceports has been discussed for years, but major upgrades have yet to materialize.” With $1.3 billion in projected “funding for spaceport improvements, the Space Force is now trying to move these plans forward, identifying the most critical areas needing attention in the near-term.” Space Systems Command Program Executive Director Brigadier General Kristin Panzenhagen said, “There’s a significant effort to define what we need to be able to support the capacity and the pace of launch that our nation needs.” Based at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, Panzenhagen in June “assumed command of Space Launch Delta 45, and oversees the nation’s busiest spaceport on the Florida coast.” Speaking last week at the AFCEA Space Industry Days conference in Los Angeles, Panzenhagen “expressed optimism that initiatives to bring East Coast and West Coast spaceports into the future could soon become reality.” The Space Force has “conducted a detailed analysis of spaceport requirements given the increased pace of commercial space launch, she said.”
Full Story (Space News)
NOAA Says Evidence of Rare Metals in Stratosphere Likely from Rocket Launches
The Washington Post reports NOAA researchers collected and analyzed particles in the stratosphere that indicates the presence of rare elemental metals niobium and hafnium, which “are common in spacecraft manufacturing and can be found in semiconductors, rocket chambers and other applications.” The discovery “sheds light on the environmental aftermath of a growing number of rockets, satellites and other human-made spacecraft that give off metal vapors as they reenter the atmosphere.” The researchers also “identified aluminum, lithium, copper and lead in the stratosphere – all of which are linked to alloys used by the aerospace industry.” It is still unclear “how the existence of these rare metals and other elements in the stratosphere might influence the climate.”
Full Story (Washington Post – Subscription Publication)
GA-ASI Completes Test of Small UAS Aerial Recovery System
The Drive reports GA-ASI has “begun flight demonstrations of a system it’s developed that will allow small drones to be launched and recovered in mid-air from larger uncrewed aerial vehicles. … The concept is known to the company as the Aerial Recovery System for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Air-Launched Effects (SUAS/ALE).” A media release from GA-ASI “reveals that a system demonstration took place over the Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, on September 20, 2023.”
Full Story (The Drive)
Joby Aviation Founder Says Electric Air Taxis Will be in Service by 2025
The AP reports that in an interview, Joby Aviation founder JoeBen Bevirt said that its electric air taxis will be in service within two years. Bevirt “insists that his Santa Cruz, California-based company…can meet an ambitious target of entering commercial air taxi service in 2025.” However, “Like other eVTOL startups, Joby is losing money – more than $400 million in 2021-2022. Analysts don’t know when, if ever, it will be profitable.” Bevirt said, “Our goal is absolutely still to achieve commercial service in 2025, and given the progress we’re making on certification and the progress we’re making on the manufacturing front, we’re excited to just be day after day knocking down the milestones.”
Full Story (Associated Press)
Wisk Aero Makes Autonomous eVTOL Flight from California Airport
Aviation Week reports Wisk Aero has started “conducting test flights of its autonomous air taxi out of Long Beach Airport, California, which the Boeing subsidiary believes is the first time an electric-vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle has flown in Los Angeles.” Wisk’s fifth-generation Cora demonstrator is being used for the test flights. According to the article, Wisk’s purpose for the flights “is to capture learnings about conducting autonomous operations at a major commercial airport.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
AIAA Mourns the Passing of Ming Chang
It is with a very heavy heart that we share Ming Chang, AIAA Aeronautics Domain Lead and AIAA Associate Fellow, passed away Sunday, 1 October 2023. Ming was a pioneer throughout his career in aeronautical engineering. Ming’s leadership driving AIAA to address the important challenges of the aeronautical world will be long remembered. His AIAA service is directly responsible for the Institute’s aeronautics domain leadership. Everyone at AIAA extends our deepest condolences to Ming’s family through this difficult time.
Overair Working to Complete First Air Taxi Prototype
An article in Aerospace America describes Overair’s facility and examines the eVTOL aircraft the company is producing and the differences from its competitors. Company Co-Founder and CEO Ben Tigner believes the company’s rotor design and proprietary technology will be what drives Overair’s success in a competitive market. Overair’s aircraft will use large rotors, and therefore require less than competitors like Joby, Archer, and Volocopter – using only four rotors while others use as many as 18. The rotors are large, but lightweight due to their utilization of carbon fiber composite.
Full Story (Aerospace America)
USAF Begins Testing of Joby Electric Air Taxi
Aerospace America reports that on Monday, the US Air Force (USAF) held a ceremony to formally introduce personnel “to the first electric air taxi to be stationed at an American military base: a Joby Aviation S4 tiltrotor.” The S4 will be operated at Edwards Air Force Base by the USAF, Joby, and NASA in order to test its ability to carry personnel and supplies. Edwards Air Force Base 412th Test Wing Commander Col. Douglas Wickert said, “We’re literally standing on the threshold here of a new era in aviation. There’s no doubt that the electrification of aviation is going to be a critical piece in the broader energy transition toward a sustainable future for humanity, and I’m proud that we get to the opportunity to contribute to that. There’s a transformative vertical lift industry that’s emerging, and we need to be partners in it.” The S4 at the ceremony is the first one delivered to the USAF under a $131 million contract between Joby and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s innovation arm AFWERX. The USAF will not officially own the aircraft, but the contract allows the USAF and partners to fly it.
Full Story (Aerospace America)
USAF Receives First Electric Passenger Aircraft Capable of Taking Off, Landing Vertically
The New York Times reports the US Air Force announced Monday that it had “received its first electric passenger aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically, a milestone for the companies that hope to one day sell thousands of such vehicles to serve as air taxis. Joby Aviation, an air taxi start-up, delivered the aircraft to Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California … , Air taxis are typically powered by batteries and designed to lift off and land like helicopters, but include wings to fly like airplanes.” Joby “said that its electric aircraft is substantially quieter than helicopters or planes. Each can carry one pilot and four passengers and travel as fast as 200 miles per hour and as far as 100 miles, according to the company.”
Full Story (New York Times)