Airborne: Reborn / Volume XIV / October 7th 2020
In Airborne: Reborn this week we’ve got Advanced Air Mobility updates from China, France, Korea and Indonesia and electric aircraft are being raced, ordered and tested from Sweden to New Zealand.
In a flurry of UAV updates there’s a kidney (and corneas) flying across the Nevada desert, a delivery’s made to a moving ship in the Netherlands and autonomous systems are busy inspecting bridges and transiting through busy Class B airspace near an international airport in America.
In space news there are more millions for Finnish SAR satellites, Starlink’s connecting fire ravaged communities in Washington state, a tiny lunar rover’s arrived at NASA for testing and solar-electric engines might soon take smallsats all the way to the moon!
Head of Hyundai’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) division (and former Associate Administrator of Aeronautics at NASA) Jaiwon Shin revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that the company is working on a whole range of eVTOL aircraft, including a larger inter-city variant of their S-A1 and a cargo vehicle capable of lifting 300kg payloads. The company also snapped up two top AI scholars to help guide their future mobility plans (via Bloomberg / Yahoo! News).
eHang unveiled the 216L cargo variant of their Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) capable of lifting a 200kg payload. It’s aimed at the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) aerial logistics market, forecast by Frost & Sullivan to grow at a staggering CAGR of 740% to $46bn USD by 2023 (via eHang):
Groupe ADP, RATP Group and the Paris region launched a worldwide call for expressions of interest in their newly announced Urban Air Mobility (UAM) test area at Pontoise airfield 35km west of Paris. It includes the opportunity for companies to showcase their offerings at the Paris Olympics in 2024. Germany’s Voloctoper have announced their participation in the project. Companies with solutions in any of the five categories (vehicle development, ground infrastructure, airspace integration, operations and public acceptance) have until Nov. 13th to apply at reinventairmobility.com (via Volocopter).
Frogs from Yogyakarta on the Indonesian island of Java look set to become the first company in the region to successfully test a ‘passenger drone’. Their two-passenger / 200kg payload multicopter has a 100 km/h top speed and up to 30 minutes endurance (via e27):
New Zealand’s Sounds Air have signed a letter of intent to purchase at least one ES-19 electric airliner (400km range) from Sweden’s Heart Aerospace. They’ll use it to ply the 300km Wanaka - Christchurch route (via Otago Daily Times).
The Aviation Index 2020 - a survey of air passenger attitudes commissioned by NATS - showed that 70% of respondents wanted action on climate change to be the aviation industry’s top priority - an 18% increase in just two years (via ADS).
Beringer Aero are partnering with Air Race E to launch an all-electric air race series in 2021 featuring 12 teams from nine countries (via AOPA).
ATR Aircraft, jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo, will start developing low-emission aircraft based on their ATR 42 and 72 platforms from 2021 (via Airway).
A new international test centre facility for electric aircraft and UAS - dubbed Green Flyway - has been established at Swedavia’s Åre Östersund Airport in Sweden (via Airport Business).
Robotic Skies signed a deal to provide drone field maintenance, inspection and repair services to AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) in the US (via AUVSI).
Bell’s APT 70 cargo drone flew a successful autonomous test flight in Dallas Fort Worth, which included transiting busy Class B airspace near an international airport, as part of a NASA UAS integration programme (via Vertical Mag):
A Dutch Drone Delta UAS successfully delivered a package to a moving ship in the second successful trial of this type to take place at the Port of Rotterdam (via Port News).
A MissionGo drone flew a human kidney more than 10 miles into the Nevada desert as part of test flights that the company hope will lead to widespread organ delivery operations in the US State (via Business Insider):
Sonin Hybrid from Atlanta unveiled their Recruit drone, aimed exclusively at first responders. Capable of 140mph the hybrid petrol-electric powertrain means it can stay airborne for up to three hours and features sirens, flashing lights, a 6,000 lumen spotlight and a loudspeaker with ‘5km audible range’ (via UAV Expert News):
The acquisition of OneWeb by Bharti Global and the British government moved a step closer as a US Bankruptcy Court in New York’s Southern District approved the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. As part of the process the company exited their joint venture with the Russian Space Agency, their 49% stake transferring to Roscosmos subsidiary Gonets (via OneWeb / ATV).
Rocket Factory Augsburg announced that they will offer launches from Kouru, French Guiana, working with the French space agency CNES (via satnews).
ExoTerra of Colorado will develop a solar-electric upper stage for Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, following the award of a contract by NASA. Using a Halo-XL hall-effect thruster payloads can be propelled beyond low earth orbit, potentially sending up to 150kg to the moon (via Space News).
Emergency responders in Washington State have been trialling early versions of SpaceX’s Starlink internet service since August, providing internet connectivity with latency of less than 30ms in areas ravaged by wildfires (via Ars Technica):
Finland’s ICEye closed an $87m Series C round of funding led by return investors True Ventures. The company build their Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in-house and plan to launch another dozen by the end of next year (via FinSMEs).
China has reportedly filed applications with the International Telecommunications Union for two large constellations totalling 12,992 satellites (via Spacewatch Global).
Astrobotic have delivered their first tiny 4kg CubeRover to NASA’s Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Lab at the Kennedy Space Centre for testing on their simulated lunar surface. It’s designed to be deployable from a variety of different lunar landers (via Engadget):
After a month of aborted launches in the US dubbed ‘Scrubtober’, SpaceX successfully launched another 60 Starlink satellites:
The FAA issued a first-of-its-kind State-wide BVLOS waiver to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) for bridge inspection with Skydio drones using Skydio Autonomy, their autonomous flight engine. It’s estimated to cost 75% less than conventional inspection methods (via Skydio):
Britten Norman and Blue Bear in the UK announced that they will work together on automating operations of an Islander aircraft (via ADS):
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