Aviation Week reports that Skydweller Aero “has conducted the first fully autonomous flights of its solar-powered, heavy-payload, long-endurance uncrewed aircraft after equipping the former Solar Impulse 2 with an internally developed fly-by-wire flight control system.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
The Skydweller aircraft
(New Scientist; YouTube)
CNBC reports Amazon said Monday it is expanding its air cargo unit, Amazon Air, to India. The company “is using two Boeing 737-800 aircraft flown by Quikjet Cargo Airlines to ship packages across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.” Amazon Air’s presence in the country “will enable the company to offer faster deliveries to customers in India, said Sarah Rhoads, vice president of Amazon Global Air, in a statement.” At the same time, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy “is undergoing a broad review of the company’s expenses as it stares down a worsening economic outlook and slowing retail sales.” The company began the largest set of layoffs in its history last week, which is expected to result in the elimination of 18,000 jobs.
Full Story (CNBC)
Aviation Week reports that the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-21 test-flight program “has passed another milestone as the aircraft reached Mach 1 for the first time since taking to the skies in July 2022.” This marks the first time a South Korean-built aircraft has broken the sound barrier.
Full Story (Aviation Week)
The Daily Mail (UK) reports that the world’s largest aircraft “with a 383-foot wingspan recently took to the skies over the Mojave Desert in California to complete a six-hour test flight for a new record.” The Stratolaunch Roc carrier plane “conducted its second test flight Friday morning while carrying the Talon-A separation test vehicle.” The flight is “a significant step for the company’s progress toward the separation test and its first hypersonic flight of TA-1 within the first half of 2023.” The primary objectives “for Friday’s flight, which is the craft’s ninth take off, included flight outside of the local Mojave area for the first time and evaluation of the separation environment.” Zachary Krevor, chief executive officer and president of Stratolaunch, said in a statement: “Our amazing team is continuing to make progress on our test timeline, and it is through their hard work that we grow closer than ever to safe separation and our first hypersonic flight tests.”
Full Story (Daily Mail)
Aviation Week reports that 10 years “into its development of a delivery drone, Amazon has started flying packages to customers at locations in Texas and California.” Amazon started “drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, on Dec. 22, the company confirmed to AAM Report.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
The New York Times reports, “United Airlines plans to buy at least 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets by 2032 as it replaces aging planes with newer, more fuel-efficient models and pursues international growth, the airline announced on Tuesday.” The deal, expected to be “worth tens of billions of dollars at list prices, comes a little more than a year after United said it planned to buy 270 single-aisle planes – the largest purchase of U.S. aircraft in a decade.” The deal includes an option for 100 additional Dreamliners, as the carrier seeks to “drop 100 Boeing 767 and 777 wide-body planes from its fleet by 2030.”
Full Story (New York Times)
Aviation Today reported that Ampaire’s Eco Caravan aircraft, “an upgraded Cessna Grand Caravan, made its first flight last week on a fully-integrated hybrid-electric propulsion system.” The Los Angeles-based electric aircraft developer “flew its first hybrid-electric regional aircraft on a 30-minute test flight above southern California during the early morning hours of Friday, Nov. 18.” This test flight shows “promising success for the developer’s integrated propulsion system.”
Aviation Today (Aviation Today)
BBC News reports that the FAA said on Monday that “it was proposing to expand its definition of the machines it considered air carriers from airplanes and helicopters, adding ‘powered lift’ to the list.” This is a big step forward in the regulation clearance for commercial air taxis, but the rules “now face a period of public comment before they can go into effect.” The agency also “said it expected to publish proposed rules for operating such aircraft in summer 2023. Those rules will outline in more detail the criteria that firms will need to meet to license pilots and launch their operations.”
BBC News (BBC News)
BBC News reports that the FAA said on Monday that “it was proposing to expand its definition of the machines it considered air carriers from airplanes and helicopters, adding ‘powered lift’ to the list.” This is a big step forward in the regulation clearance for commercial air taxis, but the rules “now face a period of public comment before they can go into effect.” The agency also “said it expected to publish proposed rules for operating such aircraft in summer 2023. Those rules will outline in more detail the criteria that firms will need to meet to license pilots and launch their operations.”
BBC News (BBC News)
CNBC reported that Amazon’s new delivery drone, the MK27-2, will begin making deliveries in two markets in California and Texas by the end of this year. The drone will drop packages from 12 feet in the air on delivery. “It can only carry packages weighing less than five pounds, and deliveries must fit in one box about the size of a shoe box.”
Full Story (CNBC)