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Archer Aviation VP of Design Talks Developing a Human-centric eVTOL

Avionics International recently caught up with Archer Aviation Vice President of Design and Innovation Julien Montousse to discuss his vision for the exterior and interior design elements of the passenger-carrying eVTOL they want to launch by 2024. Pictured here, is the two-seater Maker eVTOL demonstrator unveiled by Archer in June. (Archer Aviation)

With just over two years remaining until Archer Aviation’s goal of having a four-passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) ready for a commercial launch by 2024, the California-based startup will need to make some key decisions about the design of its aircraft over the next six months, Julien Montousse, Vice President of design and innovation at Archer told Avionics International during a recent interview.

Last month, Archer announced two key eVTOL development program milestones, including receiving its a G-1 issue paper from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) outlining a path to certification and a merger with Atlas Crest Investment Corp. that made it a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Montousse joined Archer in November 2020 after serving as the head of design for Mazda’s North American operations for several years, but notes that his experience as a consultant on the design of the SpaceX Dragon 2 cabin sparked his interest in aerospace and made him jump at the opportunity to work with Archer.

“We have a short timeframe to bring this aircraft to market, with our goal being 2024, and that means that a lot of the design decisions are going to have to happen over the next six months,” Montousse said. “There will still of course be some smaller tuning, but in terms of the core architecture itself, and the overall understanding of how it will be shaped inside and outside—a lot of that will be decided over the next six months. We’re going to try to come as close as possible over the next six months to have the A-side—the A-side is everything you see and touch, the B-side is everything you don’t see or touch—decided and finalized.”

The design that Archer ultimately decides upon will most likely have noticeable exterior and interior differences from the two-passenger Maker eVTOL demonstrator that they unveiled in June. While the passenger-carrying capacity of the aircraft could change, Montousse said that as of now they’re initially sticking to the configuration that was announced in February along with their United Airlines partnership and purchase order, a design for one pilot and four passengers.

Montousse said that another key focus for the Archer design team right now is ensuring that the overall design is simplistic and visually appealing to future passengers. He said the team has already come up with a number of design improvements on the Maker.

Montousse said he believes passengers should be able to enter and exit Archer’s eVTOL hands-free. (Archer Aviation)

“If you look at the Maker demonstrator, and even some of the designs of our competitors, as an aircraft it is still very complex in its assembly, its construction and where you have a typical fuselage to wing box integration and rotors that are split from the wings. Visually, it still appears as a very complex product,” Montousse said. “One of the key goals for us visually is to simplify the aircraft and that really requires a focus on integration. How do we integrate all of those key components in a way that is more digestible to the eye?”

Archer’s design team is currently working on those improvements with the use of computer-aided design (CAD) as well as virtual reality-based models that show how different eVTOL models would appear in operation or how a vertiport could support one design versus another. According to Montousse, three of the principles guiding their considerations for design changes are operational efficiency, payload and FAA certification requirements.

Lessons learned from the cabin interior design and materials featured on the majority of today’s smaller fixed and rotary wing aircraft will also be incorporated into Archer’s first production-ready eVTOl as well.

“If you think about some of the smaller business aircraft flying right now, the majority of people have to crouch down when they get inside or grab a handle and hoist themselves into the cabin. I think that your connection to the aircraft should be as simple as possible. You should be able to get in and get out completely hands-free. In a way, we’re going to be competing with cars, and people that are accustomed to getting into and out of their cars in a fluid manner. We should expect that same desire for such an experience on our aircraft. No one wants to crawl into a small space and be crammed in anymore,” Montousse said.

There will also be a focus on ensuring there is space between seats within the cabin to allow passengers to have more privacy in the event that they could be sharing the air taxi with strangers. Creating a more interactive passenger experience is also a desire for Montousse’s team, as they’re currently studying the use of retina capture and holographic displays as windows that could provide passengers with information about points of interest within their flight as they look outside.

“Even if its just a 10-minute flight, we want that to be an amazing 10 minutes of comfort. We know passengers will be fairly constrained, you won’t have the space to get up and go to another seat or stand up in the aisle in between. You’re going to be sitting in that space for 10 minutes and we want it to be as comfortable as possible. That is extremely important,” Montousse said.

In a recent blog post, Archer provided a comparison of its Maker demonstrator eVTOL’s 45 A-weighted decibels (dBA) noise output to other forms of transportation, with the company claiming it will be “1,000 times” quieter than a traditional helicopter. The 45 dbA noise level is based on Maker flying overhead at 2,000 feet.

As the company moves closer to finalizing the design of its production eVTOL, Montousse said that his team is evaluating the use of noise-cancelling technology to reduce the sound of rotors to the passengers in the cabin as well. And while Archer desires a simplistic eVTOL design, Montousse said the goal is still to produce a design that is “sexy, progressive and pushes the world into this new era of transportation.”

“We want it to perform aerodynamically and structurally of course, but we’re also focused on making a product that is extremely sexy and progressive. When I was at Mazda, we really tried to bring to life a product with an appealing design. This is something that I brought with me to aerospace and I my quest is to bring emotion into a world that is 100 percent mathematical. When people see it, it won’t look 100 percent mathematical,” Montousse said.

The post Archer Aviation VP of Design Talks Developing a Human-centric eVTOL appeared first on Aviation Today.

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Boeing Gives 737 MAX, 777X and 787 Program Updates with Third Quarter Earnings Report

During a third quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he expects the 777X, pictured here, to be ready for deliveries and entry into service by late 2023. (Boeing)

Boeing executives provided several program updates for three of their flagship commercial aircraft programs including the 737 MAX, 777X and 787 as the manufacturer reported $15.3 billion in third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, driven primarily by higher commercial aircraft deliveries and services.

Revenue for Boeing’s commercial airplanes division amounted to $4.5 billion during the third quarter, a 24 percent increase from the same period a year ago while the company also secured a total of 106 commercial aircraft orders while completing 85 total deliveries. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun and CFO Brian Davis each provided updates and some insight on some of the ongoing progress and work remaining on the 737 MAX and 787 production and delivery rates while sticking to the same timeline they have previously provided for initial deliveries and entry into service of the 777X.

“Our commercial market is showing improved signs of recovery with vaccine distribution and border protocols beginning to open. As demand returns, supply chain capacity and global trade will be key drivers of our industry and the global economy’s recovery,” Calhoun said.

While still working through some manufacturing quality and material related issues with the 787, Boeing is still focused on establishing the developmental foundation for its next generation aircraft program.

“In addition to the 737 MAX-7, the MAX-10 and the 777X, we’re investing in our future, laying the foundation for our next commercial airplane development. This quarter, we stood up an integrated product team to bring together a digital environment where the next commercial new airplane and production system can be designed together. While we have not launched a new airplane, this is an important step in our digitization journey and our development journey to evaluate how we holistically design build test certify and support the airplane and production system,” Calhoun said.

737 MAX

Between July and September, Boeing completed 62 deliveries of the 737 MAX—the most it has recorded in a quarter for that aircraft type since the first quarter of 2019. Since the un-grounding of the MAX by the FAA a year ago, 31 total airlines have returned more than 200 previously grounded aircraft to service and have safely operated more than 500,000 flight hours with the MAX.

The 737 program is currently being produced at a rate of 19 per month and continues to progress towards a production rate of 31 per month in early 2022. Calhoun told investors that flight testing for the 737 MAX return to service in China was completed in the third quarter, and Boeing continues to anticipate final approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) by the end of the year.

“We also continue to make progress on the certification of the 737 MAX-7 and the MAX-10. We currently anticipate the first delivery at the MAX-7 in 2022 and the first delivery of the MAX-10 in 2023. As always, we’ll follow global regulators lead in the steps ahead on all certification matters,” Calhoun said.

70 of the 106 commercial aircraft orders secured by Boeing during the second quarter were for 737 MAX aircraft.

The latest program updates on the 737 MAX come following a recent report published by the Department of Justice outlining an indictment of former 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot Mark A. Forkner on fraud charges related to the original certification of the aircraft.

Calhoun also acknowledged in an Oct. 27 statement issued to employees the three-year anniversary of the fatal Lion Air Flight 610 accident occurring on Friday Oct. 29.

“Friday, Oct. 29 marks three years since the Lion Air Flight 610 accident, which claimed the lives of 189 people. In remembrance, I ask all Boeing employees to join me in taking a few, solemn moments on Friday to remember those lives lost,” Calhoun said. “The memories of those 189 victims, as well as the 157 people who lost their lives on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, drive the important work we do and forever remind us of the trust the flying public places in us to bring them to their destination safely. Across Boeing, we must continue to learn from our past, let our strong values guide us, and honor the memories of those lives lost by ensuring a steadfast focus on safety, quality, integrity and transparency in all we do.”

777X

Calhoun said that Boeing is seeing strong demand for freighter aircraft, including freighter versions of the 777 right now, and expects to increase its 777 freighter production capacity in the near term.

Regarding the 777X, that latest program development came earlier this month when Boeing started engine performance flight testing for the re-engined 777.

“The airplane is performing well and in-line with our customer commitments based on the data that we’ve collected to date, we will validate these results and we will continue to work with the FAA to ensure we meet their requirements prior to beginning the certification flight tests,” Calhoun said. “We still expect we will deliver the first 777X in late 2023. Given the continued robust freighter demand, and the compelling economics of the 777X, were currently evaluating the timing of launching a freighter version of our 777X airplane.”

Boeing has been developing the 777X since 2013, and originally projected its entry into service to occur last year.

787

The 787 program currently has the least amount of certainty around when it will return to a normal production rate and when Boeing can start resuming deliveries to airlines. Boeing first suffered a setback with the 787 in July, when the production rate was lowered to less than five per month and deliveries were halted due to a manufacturing issue associated with some components of the aircraft located in the forward pressure bulkhead and within sections of the fuselage.

Calhoun said Boeing currently had 105 total 787s in its inventory waiting to be delivered at the end of the third quarter. Timing for Boeing to resume those deliveries is dependent upon ongoing inspections and re-work of some of those aircraft as well as some ongoing work with the FAA.

“We did have a sort of a late breaking [issue] from a parts supplier that unfortunately is a sub tier supplier to other suppliers where we have to track a particular material substitution question that was brought to us by their regulators and track it through every part and then through supplier to us. So that process just takes time. We have segmented those parts, we believe we’re in a good place, we don’t believe there are any safety ramifications. On the subject of compliance, we just have to make sure we’re compliant with the material specs that are included in our design,” Calhoun said.

The post Boeing Gives 737 MAX, 777X and 787 Program Updates with Third Quarter Earnings Report appeared first on Aviation Today.

Commercial Aerospace, Defense Power Raytheon Technologies In Third Quarter

Raytheon subsidiary Pratt & Whitney saw an uptick in commercial aircraft aftermarket engine and services demand during the third quarter associated with what the company describes as a rebound in the aftermarket business for commercial aircraft. (Raytheon)

Raytheon Technologies on Tuesday posted higher sales and net income in the third quarter driven by a rebound in the aftermarket business for commercial aircraft and strong results in its defense businesses, leading the company to boost its earnings outlook for this year.

Net income of $1.4 billion, 93 cents earnings per share (EPS), was up more than 500 percent from $264 million (17 cents EPS) a year ago. Adjusted earnings, which exclude acquisition related accounting adjustments, and to a lesser extent debt retirement and restructuring costs, were $1.26 EPS in the quarter, topping consensus estimates by 17 cents per share.

Sales increased 10 percent to $16.2 billion versus $14.7 billion a year ago with all of the growth organic.

Growth in the quarter was led by the Pratt & Whitney engine business, which was higher due to the commercial sales in the aftermarket and passenger aircraft business, and also benefited slightly from an uptick in sustainment for F-135 engines that power the F-35 fighter jet.

Sales were also up at the Collins Aerospace segment related to commercial aftermarket support and the Raytheon Missiles and Defense Segment due to growth on an international National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System and the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile program.

Income gains were driven by commercial aftermarket at the Collins Aerospace segment and a swing to profit at Pratt & Whitney, also due to improvements in the commercial aftermarket. RTC’s defense businesses also enjoyed double-digit percentage increased in operating income due to improved productivity and higher sales.

Raytheon will have about $350 million in lower defense sales this year, about $275 million of which will eventually be recovered, Greg Hayes, the company’s chairman and CEO, said on an earnings call. The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan is responsible for $75 million of the lost sales through services to the U.S. and Afghan governments and won’t be recovered, he said.

Hayes described the $275 million in lost sales as supply chain and workforce issues. Raytheon hasn’t been able to hire enough new employees, which impacts revenue, he said. Supply chain issues are also preventing the receipt of raw materials and components, which can’t be billed to customers until they arrive, he added.

Hiring issues represent about one-third of the lost defense sales and the supply chain disruptions the rest, Hayes said. Lead times for some raw materials have doubled, he said, adding that logistics have also become a challenge with having trucks picking up and delivering materials. Suppliers are also facing labor shortages, he said.

President Biden’s Dec. 8 vaccine mandate for federal contractors is likely to add to near-term supply chain pressures. But in the long-term, as vaccine rates increase, this will boost confidence in the safety of air travel, Neil Mitchill, Raytheon’s chief financial officer, said on the earnings call.

A drop in production rates for Boeing’s 787 commercial airliner has also significantly impacted sales expectations this year, Mitchill also said.

Backlog at the end of the third quarter stood at $156.1 billion, up 4 percent from $150.1 billion at the end of 2020. Defense work accounts for $65 billion of the backlog, down $200 million from the end of 2020.

Raytheon acquired two companies during the third quarter, FlightAware and SEAKR Engineering, and Hayes said these are the types of deals the company will continue to make, particularly to enhance current offerings in software and space systems. The company continues to review its portfolio for potential divestitures of lower margin, lower growth businesses, he said.

<<This article was first published by Defense Daily, a sister publication to Avionics International, it has been edited, click here to view the original version.>>

The post Commercial Aerospace, Defense Power Raytheon Technologies In Third Quarter appeared first on Aviation Today.

Alaska Air Group Partners with ZeroAvia to Develop Hydrogen Power for Regional Airliners

ZeroAvia is gaining altitude as a developer of zero-emission passenger aircraft as it announces a development collaboration with Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines, for a hydrogen-electric powertrain capable of flying 76-seat regional aircraft in excess of 500 NM. (ZeroAvia)

Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines, has partnered with ZeroAvia under a collaboration that will develop a hydrogen-electric powertrain capable of flying a 76-seat regional aircraft with a range of 500 nautical miles, according to an Oct. 26 announcement made by the two companies.

The partnership marks the latest milestone for ZeroAvia, the California-based green startup that has been testing its hydrogen powertrain in the U.K. over the last year, in their effort to de-carbonize regional airline operations. Under the new partnership, the two company’s engineering teams will scale ZeroAvia’s existing hydrogen electric powertrain to produce the “ZA2000,” that will be retrofitted onto a 76-seat De Havilland Q400 previously operated by Horizon Air.

“Alaska is committed to creating a sustainable future for aviation, working on all aspects of a five-part path toward our goal of net zero by 2040,” Diana Birkett Rakow, vice president of public affairs and sustainability for Alaska Airlines said in a statement announcing the new partnership.

ZeroAvia notes that the ZA2000 will be an engine family capable of producing between 2,000 and 5,000 kilowatts of power allowing for a 500-mile range. A new facility will be established near Seattle to support the development of the ZA2000 engine. Alaska has also secured options for up to 50 kits to begin converting its regional aircraft to hydrogen-electric power, starting with the Q400.

Alaska is including the new partnership in the five-step plan it laid out earlier this year to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Airlines, previously commented on the carrier’s view of electric aircraft during an appearance on a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit panel in April, describing how it could eventually be used on small passenger carrying aircraft.

“I think we need to help these technology companies with investment, and research so we can really accelerate, the issue of batteries is very heavy, but I think you’ll see it on little passenger airplanes, whether they be 5-10 at first and then moving into the bigger regional market,” Minicucci said.

ZeroAvia’s Alaska Air Group partnership announcement came a day after another partnership agreement was announced with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Regional Jet Aviation Group (MHIRJ) to provide engineering services in support of their effort to certify their hydrogen-electric propulsion technology for regional jets. MHIRJ will also provide “advisory services evaluating the feasibility of a green retrofit program for regional aircraft,” according to an Oct. 25 press release.

Both the Alaska Air Group and MHIRJ partnership agreements come following a series of program development ups and downs for ZeroAvia, including an off-airport landing of their test aircraft near Cranfield Airport in April and the start of ground-testing for a 600 kilowatt powertrain designed for a 19-seat aircraft several months later in August.

“The aviation industry is one of the hardest industries to decarbonize; however, with this collaboration, we are one step closer to achieving our goal of making our skies emission-free,” Val Mifthakhov, CEO and founder of ZeroAvia said in a statement. “We are thrilled to see Alaska taking the lead to implement clean technologies into their operations and look forward to putting boots on the ground with Alaska’s team.”

The post Alaska Air Group Partners with ZeroAvia to Develop Hydrogen Power for Regional Airliners appeared first on Aviation Today.

Mesa Air Group First Scheduled US Airline to Launch Commercial Drone Delivery Service

Mesa Air Group has an order agreement to purchase four Flirtey Eagle drones, with the option to purchase an additional 500. (Flirtey)

Mesa Air Group has become the first scheduled U.S.-based airline to launch a commercial drone delivery service, according to an Oct. 21 announcement.

The Phoenix, Arizona-based Mesa Air Group — a holding company of Mesa Airlines — signed an agreement with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) manufacturer Flirtey for a firm order of four of its electric-powered Flirtey Eagle drones. Under the agreement, Mesa has the option to order an additional 500 aircraft.

Reno, Nevada-based Flirtey completed the first FAA-approved drone delivery in 2015 as part of the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP), and currently offers its Eagle drone, a portable drone launch point and autonomous software for commercial drone services.

“Mesa is excited to partner with Flirtey to become the first scheduled airline to launch drone delivery in the U.S. Drone delivery is a huge market and it’s here now. This is the future of small package last mile delivery,” Mesa Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein said in a statement.

Mesa and Flirtey have formed a partnership as part of their purchase order agreement, where the two companies will initially focus on the last-mile food delivery industry to fulfill Mesa’s desire to move into the global food services market. One immediate goal of the partnership is to operate commercial drone deliveries for last-mile food and beverage options in the U.S..

Eventually, Flirtey and Mesa want to pursue expansion of their drone delivery service to more locations throughout the U.S. and New Zealand. Flirtey has conducted over 6,000 drone delivery flights in U.S. airspace, while Mesa will leverage its operational experience currently managing approximately 450 daily departure routes in the U.S.—as a regional subsidiary performing flights as either American Eagle, United Express, or DHL Express.

The Flirtey drone order marks Mesa Air Group’s latest effort to embrace new and innovative aviation technologies this year. In February, the regional carrier was part of a partnership formed between United Airlines and Archer Aviation for the purchase of 200 of Archer’s Maker eVTOL aircraft. Several months later in July, alongside Breakthrough Energy Ventures and United Airlines Ventures, Mesa announced plans to add 100 of the all-electric ES-19 aircraft being developed by Heart Aerospace to its feet.

Mesa has not specified a timeline as to when and where the airline plans to launch its new drone delivery service.

“Flirtey is excited to partner with Mesa to operationalize our best-in-class drone delivery aircraft and autonomous software platform. With Mesa’s operational excellence, we look forward to rapidly expanding drone delivery focusing on the trillion dollar last-mile food delivery market,” Flirtey Founder and CEO Matthew Sweeny said in a statement.

The post Mesa Air Group First Scheduled US Airline to Launch Commercial Drone Delivery Service appeared first on Aviation Today.

Jaunt Air Mobility CEO Talks AIRO Group and Latest Journey eVTOL Program Developments

Jaunt Air Mobility is developing its five-seat fully electric eVTOL pictured here as a computer-generated prototype, and has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIRO Group. (Jaunt Air Mobility)

Jaunt Air Mobility’s merge with the AIRO Group (US) will provide the financial leverage and business leadership necessary to continue the development of their Journey electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and eventually an autonomous cargo drone. During the 2021 NBAA BACE in Las Vegas, Martin Peryea, CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility, explained how joining the AIRO Group will help achieve their eVTOL aspirations with Journey and provided some insight into how they’re approaching the development of Journey’s fly-by-wire flight control system.

Dallas, Texas-based Jaunt is aiming to develop Journey, a five-seat all-electric eVTOL to be ready for entry into service by 2026. Separately, the company is also developing a larger longer range hybrid-electric diesel-powered aircraft with VerdeGo Aero.

AIRO Group’s addition of Jaunt Air Mobility as a wholly-owned subsidiary now makes it the parent company of six companies, including Drone, Agile Defense, Aspen Avionics, Coastal Defense, Sky-Watch and VRCO.

“Financing and funding the development of our aircraft is an area where Jaunt needed some help, and we have never taken a company public, so joining AIRO allows us to participate in their business plans and collectively we know that the companies are worth more together than as individual companies,” Peryea said. “Having worked for Bell, a Textron company with a corporate governance model in place, I have a lot of experience working under this type of structure and I envision that this is going to be very similar to that model.”

Jaunt Air Mobility CEO Marin Peryea.

Jaunt is developing an eVTOL that vertically takes off and lands like a helicopter, while transitioning into forward flight like a traditional fixed-wing aircraft. The company is developing Journey to certification requirements outlined by the rotorcraft Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular (AC) 29.1309-2.

“There is no new ruling that needs to take place or occur, because we’re certifying under existing Part 29 rules, which makes it easier for our engineers because they know what the design requirements are going to be. Certification specialists can validate our work because the familiarity with rotorcraft certification is already there. They will be able to understand how this aircraft operates and behaves in low-speed, its vertical takeoff and landing qualities and that gives us an advantage over some of the other aircraft configurations coming into this space that are truly not known today in terms of how they behave, especially in vertical modes of flight,” Peryea said.

Peryea said that one of the challenges for some of the newer never-seen-before aircraft configurations being proposed in the eVTOL space right now is how those designs will perform in extreme conditions or the “corners” of their respective flight envelopes.

“We call it the corners of the flight envelope,” Peryea said. “That’s one of the challenges that the rotorcraft industry has solved over the years of operating in high wind conditions, in urban areas. It requires a lot of control power and understanding of the flight dynamics of the aircraft and a lot of these new aircraft configurations don’t have any of that experience yet, it’s something they’re going to have to spend a lot of time testing and understanding. It’s really the corners of the flight envelope, because flying in nice calm easy air is no big challenge. It’s the extremes, the conditions where you really have to test your aircraft to make sure it remains safe for passengers in that flight mode.”

According to Peryea, the slow rotor capability of Journey is also a key element of its flight control system. Jaunt is using a computer system within the aircraft tasked with slowing the rotor tip speed in an effort to reduce Journey’s drag and associated vibration.

On the avionics side of Journey’s development, Jaunt is working with Garmin. Peryea said that the form factors of Garmin’s avionics systems that have been integrated into “smaller and lighter packages” in recent years, is complimentary to the space and weight savings necessary for achieving the payload, passenger capacity and payload targets that Jaunt has outlined.

Becoming an AIRO Group subsidiary also helps Jaunt Air Mobility’s funding of the development and testing of the battery technology key to Journey’s eVTOL performance and operational scope. BAE Systems first signed an electric energy management systems development agreement with Jaunt in December 2019, and has been working in conjunction with Triumph Aerospace Structures to integrate hardware and software for Journey’s battery management system as well as managing the actuation and high-voltage power distribution.

“We’ve been working closely with BAE, they’re developing the battery and battery management system and they have supplied to Boeing and Airbus and other aerospace companies and bring a tremendous amount of aircraft certification experience. They actually supply a lot of battery systems today for ground transportation and have a tremendous amount of experience developing these systems,” Peryea said.

(Jaunt Air Mobility)

In recent months, leading up to the new merge with AIRO Group, Jaunt has continued to expand into new partnerships and government-funded eVTOL competitions as well as research and development contracts. In May for example, the company appointed former Eric Côté, a former Bombardier executive, to serve as president of Jaunt Air Mobility Canada, where the company will open new design and manufacturing centers.

CAE has also been selected to lead the design and development of the Jaunt Aircraft Systems Integration Lab (JASIL) and VerdeGo Aero announced the results of 500 full-scale tests of the prototype hybrid system that they’re developing for Jaunt’s larger hybrid electric aircraft.

“AIRO has existing revenue in its current civilian and military operations and has historically reinvested earnings into Independent Research and Development (IRAD). Therefore, additional capital required to produce fully operational eVTOL aircraft is substantially reduced to our advantage compared with our competitors,” Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Executive Chairman of AIRO, said of their merger with Jaunt Air Mobility. “The current market capitalization of companies in the eVTOL space and urban air mobility platforms are very significant. AIRO additionally delivers diversified services across the UAM/Avionics/eVTOL/Defense marketplace.

AIRO is poised to be the leading publicly traded mid-tier aerospace and defense company after the void created by acquisitions in the public marketplace.”

The post Jaunt Air Mobility CEO Talks AIRO Group and Latest Journey eVTOL Program Developments appeared first on Aviation Today.

In-flight Review of SmartSky’s Connectivity: Slack Calling and Live Streaming at 35,000 Feet

SmartSky’s demonstration aircraft, a Citation Excel provided demonstration flight’s of the company’s new in-flight connectivity network during NBAA BACE 2021 in Las Vegas.

On the final day of the 2021 National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (BACE), I participated in a demonstration flight of the SmartSkyNetworks in-flight connectivity (IFC) network poised to become available in U.S. airspace next year. Here, I provide a brief review of how SmartSky’s IFC allowed me to stream live YouTube channels, complete slack calls and face-time among other things at 35,000 feet over Las Vegas.

Arriving at Henderson Executive Airport at 8:00 AM, I joined five other passengers and two pilots for a one-hour flight on SmartSky’s Citation Excel, a sleek and clean private jet inside and out.

Prior to boarding, Ryan Stone, president of SmartSky Networks pointed to the SmartSky Networks receive and transmit antennas, both affixed to the bottom of the fuselage and showed us the Honeywell GoDirect Router that was being used to enable Wi-Fi in-flight.

SmartSky’s receive and transmit antennas are installed on the bottom of the Citation’s fuselage.

Once onboard, I first ensured that my smartphone — a 5G iPhone 12 — had Wi-Fi calling enabled as instructed by Stone. At 10,000 feet, I was able to instantly connect to the SmartSky in-flight Wi-Fi network, which required no sign-in, registration or passcodes.

Basic web surfing, such as jumping around to different websites on the iPhone was seamless with loading times similar to those I’m used to on the ground. My first bandwidth intensive application of choice was Slack, which I primarily use to text chat and video-call co-workers. My first Slack video call was to Phyllis Abkin, my co-worker and Human Resources director who answered the call at her home office in Rockville, Maryland. We had a 10-minute video call, where I showed her around the interior of the aircraft and an out-of-the window view. After that, I immediately placed another Slack video call to another co-worker, Mark Holmes, editor-in-chief of Via Satellite, from his home office in U.K., just outside of London.

While the call to Mark was a little choppier and more difficult for him to hear me, I had the same crystal clear view on my end of Mark’s home office that I usually see when calling him on the ground. Some interruptions such as this could of course be expected considering SmartSky is still finalizing its network and expects to have 80 percent of business jet routes in U.S. airspace covered by the end of the year.

Next, I completed two FaceTime calls for five minutes each with two of my other co-workers, our group publisher Brian Nessen and director of business development, David Sheehan, who were both inside the Las Vegas Convention Center at the 2021 NBAA Press Room. Brian and Dave both commented on how crystal clear the connection was, I kept each of those calls to five minutes each.

I followed the FaceTime calls with about 10 minutes of live-streaming the YouTube channel of NBC News Now, which broadcasts live 24/7, another task that allowed the network to prove it was capable to live streaming video consistently and seamlessly.

My final in-flight application of choice came through a brief Twitter live-stream that was also flawless and consistent, in fact the most challenging aspect of that stream was finding the actual Twitter live-stream functionality in their app, another task that SmartSky’s bandwidth carried through flawlessly.

An overview of the in-flight data consumption that occurred during my SmartSky demo flight.

Keep in mind, while, doing the above-mentioned streams, there were five other passengers simultaneously connected to the network, all combined there were 14 devices connected, including a mix of tablets, smartphones and laptops. At one point in the flight, while I was on one of the Slack calls, Stone was using his laptop to show us SmoothSky, their real time in-flight turbulence data service for business aviation. He also uploaded the 25 MB video below of everyone using their devices in-flight.

Back on the ground, Stone instantly provided us with an overview of how much data was consumed in-flight through a cloud-based download performed by SmartSky’s data center that instantly emails a per-flight data download. Over the course of 46 minutes, we consumed about 1.1 GB of data, 1.1 GB of data from the ground to the air and transmitted off the plane about 670 MB. On an hourly basis, this would have been 2.2 GB/hour, according to Stone.

The post In-flight Review of SmartSky’s Connectivity: Slack Calling and Live Streaming at 35,000 Feet appeared first on Aviation Today.

Fraud Investigation Leads to Indictment of Former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot

Former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot Mark Forkner has been indicted in Northern Texas for allegedly deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration’s evaluation of the 737 MAX flight control system. (Boeing)

Mark A. Forkner, former Boeing 737 MAX Chief Technical Pilot, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas, according to an Oct. 14 Department of Justice announcement.

Forkner is being charged with allegedly deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group (FAA AEG) in connection with the group’s evaluation of the Boeing 737 MAX, which returned to passenger carrying service late last year after being grounded when two separate Lion Air and Ethiopian Airline flights involving the aircraft crashed six months apart. An indictment outlining the investigation into Forkner notes that his alleged deception involves providing the FAA AEG with materially false, inaccurate, and incomplete information about a new part of the Boeing 737 MAX flight controls, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).

According to Forkner’s indictment, the alleged fraud occurred a change was made to the way MCAS functions. Originally, MCAS was included in the flight control system to fix the tendency of the 737 MAX to pitch-up during high-speed — approximately Mach 0.6-0.8) — wind-up turns, that was caused by the 737 MAX’s larger engines being situated differently under than wings compared to the 737 NG. Eventually, as the new aircraft type progressed closer to achieving final type certification, that characteristic was changed and the MCAS started operating at lower speeds, around Mach 0.2, investigators write in the indictment.

As the lead technical pilot for the program, Forkner was tasked with updating the FAA AEG with insights into the aircraft’s performance, and any issues or challenges they should be aware of. Forkner eventually learned of the change to MCAS’s operational scope during a simulated test flight of the 737 MAX in November 2016. However, following his discovery of this change, he withheld the information from the FAA AEG during a follow up discussion with them about the simulated flight he participated in where the change was discovered.

The indictment notes that Forkner withheld the information intentionally in an effort to prevent the FAA AEG from including a level higher than Level B in assessing the level of the differences between the 737 MAX and its predecessor aircraft type, the 737 NG. Training levels above Level B potentially can be much more expensive for airlines and they typically involve full-flight simulator training, an aspect of the re-engined aircraft that Boeing wanted to avoid so that the cost of adopting the new aircraft would not be preventatively expensive.

Thus, when the FAA AEG published its Flight Standardization Board Report that included the differences training determination for the new version of the aircraft, no mention of MCAS was included because the AEG was going off the original premise that it would only become enabled at speeds higher than the normal operational scope of a typical passenger carrying 737 MAX flight. Officials note in the indictment that the AEG did not learn of the change from MCAS operating at the higher speeds to the lower Mach 0.2 until the fatal crash of Lion Air flight 610.

“In an attempt to save Boeing money, Forkner allegedly withheld critical information from regulators,” Acting U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham for the Northern District of Texas said in a statement. “His callous choice to mislead the FAA hampered the agency’s ability to protect the flying public and left pilots in the lurch, lacking information about certain 737 MAX flight controls. The Department of Justice will not tolerate fraud – especially in industries where the stakes are so high.”

Forkner is being charged with two counts of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce and four counts of wire fraud, according to the indictment. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison on each count of fraud involving aircraft parts in interstate commerce.

“There is no excusing those who deceive safety regulators for the sake of personal gain or commercial expediency,” said Inspector General Eric J. Soskin of the U.S. Department of Transportation. “Our office works continuously to help keep the skies safe for flying and protect the traveling public from needless danger. Today’s charges demonstrate our unwavering commitment to working with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners to hold responsible those who put lives at risk.”

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Frontier Airlines Adopts Airbus Skywise Health Monitoring on A320 Fleet

Frontier Airlines is adopting Skywise Health Monitoring for its fleet of A320neo aircraft. (Airbus)

Frontier Airlines is adopting Skywise Health Monitoring (SHM) technology from Airbus across its fleet of A320neo aircraft, according to an Oct. 14 press release.

SHM will give Frontier the ability to gather live fleet health diagnostics using the A320neo’s Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) link and Flight Operations and Maintenance Exchanger (“FOMAX”) data router and stream it to directly into their airline information sharing system. According to Airbus, Frontier has signed a five-year contract for SHM to be operated across a total of 111 A320neo aircraft.

Airbus notes that the FOMAX data router is capable of capturing over 20,000 real-time aircraft parameters to enable “end-to-end unscheduled event management/fixes, for example by anticipating tools and parts’ availability closest to the aircraft.”

“Frontier will use the solution for its A320 Family fleet. Airbus’ SHM will support the airline’s maintenance and engineering teams by enabling real-time management of aircraft events and troubleshooting,” Airbus said in the release.

During a June 30 media call, leadership from Airbus, Delta Tech Ops and GE Digital explained how the three entities were forming a new digital alliance to expand the data collection, storing and analysis tools provided by Skywise. According to Lionel Rouby, senior vice president, customer services innovation digital solutions at Airbus, the cloud computing infrastructure for the servers utilized by Skywise are contain a total of 15 petabytes, or 15 million total gigabytes of flight operational data points about individual in-service Airbus aircraft parts, systems, and engines.

“The first initial project we’re working on with Delta and GE is about predictive maintenance, monitoring the health of the aircraft, monitoring the messages generated by the aircraft, and collecting all the data generated to predict failure. The engine of this solution is the collection of analytics, of knowledge that will predict and anticipate the failure mode of the equipment,” Rouby said during the call, explaining how the company is trying to continually improve the capabilities of Skywise for airlines like Frontier and others using the platform.

Adoption of Skywise by Frontier comes amid a complete phasing out of their legacy A319s, the final aircraft — tail N949FR — of that fleet retired last month, completing its final flight after more than 15 years in service. The airline operates the largest A320neo fleet in North America, with an average age of 4.1 years and approximately 140 of the same aircraft model remaining on order, according to their website.

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Japan Airlines Joins Growing List of Future Avolon eVTOL Orders

Japan Airlines (JAL) has a new partnership agreement with Avolon to purchase up to 50 VA-X4 eVTOLs in the future. (Avolon)

Under a new partnership signed with Dublin, Ireland-based aircraft leasing company Avolon, Japan Airlines (JAL) will have the right to purchase or lease up to 50 Vertical VA-X5 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Avolon-e, the investment and innovation affiliate to Avolon, is leading the strategic partnership signed with JAL that will focus on identifying partnership, customers, infrastructure requirements, certification and “a range of commercial models to introduce one of the world’s first eVTOL ride sharing businesses in Japan,” according to an Oct. 20 press release. The new partnership also includes an option for JAL to purchase 50 additional VA-X4 eVTOL aircraft.

JAL’s goal under the new partnership is to have their first VA-X4 eVTOL ready for entry-into-service in 2025, in time for the Osaka Kansai Expo occurring the same year.

“Today’s announcement represents an important step towards the social implementation of Air Taxi at Osaka Kansai EXPO in 2025. Our partnership with Avolon, lays out the pathway towards achieving Air Mobility revolution in Japan. The introduction of VA-X4 will also contribute to reduce our environmental impact and we fundamentally believe that sustainability will be the engine for future growth across our business and region. We look forward to collaborating closely with Avolon and Vertical on the roadmap to certification for the VA-X4 with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau,” Tomohiro Nishihata, managing executive officer of Japan Airlines, said in a statement.

Vertical Aerospace’s eVTOL, the VA-X4, has a range of over 100 miles with a top speed of 202 mph and a five-person capacity, according to the company’s website. Vertical Aerospace is expecting the VA-X4 to be certified in 2024. The aircraft is also expected to take its first test flight this year.

Avolon recently established another similar future-facing purchase order agreement with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A., the largest airline in Brazil. In September, GOL committed to the purchase or lease of up to 250 VA-X4s, and will also be collaborating with Avolon on identification of local partners, infrastructure and certification requirements, with the goal of launching an eVTOL network for the South American country in the near future. The aircraft leasing provider signed a purchase agreement for 500 VA-X4s in June to become Vertical Aerospace’s eVTOL launch customer.

“We continue to identify partners who share the same vision to revolutionise air travel through zero-emissions eVTOL aircraft and shape the future of travel. This latest long-term partnership with JAL aligns us with one of Japan’s leading airlines on their journey to sustainability and to decarbonizing air transport. The VA-X4 will be certified to CAA and EASA’s stringent safety regulation,” Dómhnal Slattery, Avolon CEO, commented. “We believe JAL’s multi-decade experience will prove invaluable as Vertical seeks type certificate validation with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, demonstrating that the VA-X4 will be a global eVTOL, unconstrained by borders.”

Vertical Aerospace now claims — including Avalon’s 500-eVTOL order — that it has for a total of up to 1,350 aircraft preorders from American Airlines, Avolon, Bristow and Iberojet, which includes pre-order options from Virgin Atlantic and Marubeni. The company was also recently named as one of two eVTOL aircraft — Lillium being the other — that will be the launch platform for Honeywell’s next generation cloud-native Anthem cockpit system.

Vertical Aerospace has also continued to expand its aerospace engineering and leadership expertise in recent weeks, adding former Rolls Royce Chief People Officer Harry Holt as their new Chief Operating Officer (COO), and Justin Paines — previously Joby Aviation’s test pilot — as their new chief test pilot.

“The VA-X4 will transform how we travel. We are delighted to be working with Avolon and our newest partner Japan Airlines as we bring zero-emissions aircraft to the Japanese market,” Stephen Fitzpatrick, Vertical CEO said in a statement. “JAL’s experience will strengthen the certification roadmap in Japan demonstrating our global view as we make eVTOLs a reality.”

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