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New Technology Enables Efficient Conversion of CO2 to Sustainable Aviation Fuel

The scalable integration of HyCOgen and the FT CANS technology will increase SAF supply and mitigate CO2 emissions. (Johnson Matthey)

The company Johnson Matthey just launched their HyCOgen technology that enables the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) and green hydrogen into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Over 95% of the CO2 is converted into synthetic crude oil through the Reverse Water Gas Shift (HyCOgen) technology.

The FT CANS Fischer Tropsch technology, developed in coordination with bp, is combined with Johnson Matthey’s HyCOgen—a catalyzed process that forms synthesis gas, or syngas—to produce renewable fuel. The crude oil that is produced can be transformed into drop-in fuel products such as SAF, renewable diesel, and naphtha. The combination of these technologies is now available as a solution from Johnson Matthey.

According to a press release from Johnson Matthey, the scalable integration of HyCOgen and the FT CANS technology will serve to increase SAF supply and therefore mitigate CO2 emissions. The company claims that the aviation industry collectively produces 12% of the world’s transportation-related CO2 emissions. Sector Chief Executive at Johnson Matthey, Jane Toogood, explained, “There are significant hurdles in moving from hydrocarbon-based aviation fuel to alternatives such as battery electric or hydrogen. [Our expertise] in syngas generation technology can play a crucial role, by providing solutions that enable the production of sustainable drop-in fuels that are deployable today.”

Johnson Matthey played a role in United Airlines’ achievement last month of the first commercial flight using 100% drop-in SAF in one of two engines. Part of the process of enabling the SAF production was the BioForming process which uses a catalytic process to convert sugar feedstocks into BioFormate. The resulting BioFormate can be used to make biofuels that are then blended to produce the SAF. Renewable fuels and chemicals company Virent invented this technology and has partnered with Johnson Matthey since 2016 to further develop and commercialize it.

United Airlines completed the first commercial flight using 100% drop-in SAF in one of two engines last month. (United Airlines)

Johnson Matthey also entered into an agreement this week with European ethanol producer CropEnergies AG to establish a plant for producing renewable ethyl acetate using sustainable ethanol. Production of renewable ethyl acetate is estimated to reach 50,000 metric tons each year and will utilize renewable energy. According to the announcement, “The plant will also generate renewable hydrogen as a co-product that, together with biogenic CO2 from the CropEnergies fermentation process, will be the basis for further conversion of renewable energy into PtX (power-to-X) downstream routes, to produce e-fuels.”

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U.K. Government-Sponsored Trials Demonstrate Safe Tracking of BVLOS Drone Operations

Neuron Innovations completed a set of trials while leveraging the Hedera Consensus Service to demonstrate safe tracking of drones beyond visual line of sight. (Neuron Innovations)

Aviation technology company Neuron performed a set of drone trials sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of the U.K. Government. These trials were performed in Scotland in April and October 2021 and involved using the Hedera network to record flight data collected from sensors tracking the drones. The aim was to demonstrate the ability to track drone movements beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) while ensuring safety.

Hedera’s contribution, the Hedera Consensus Service, is a decentralized public ledger that collects data, including time-stamping, from the drone flights. The Hedera network was selected after a long period of consideration based on speed, refresh rates, high levels of system security, and the low transaction price.

Neuron’s eventual goal is to create a decentralized platform for various mobility solutions from drones and air taxis to autonomous vehicles and ground robots, according to the announcement. Niall Greenwood, CCO of Neuron, discussed the company’s leveraging of the Hedera system in an interview with Avionics International along with Neuron co-founder James Dunthorne and Hedera’s CMO, Christian Hasker. “We’ve been building this product for the last couple of years,” said Greenwood. “We are now progressing a number of larger trials with larger partners, under the Future Flight Challenge. We’re partnered with three of the partners globally including Atkins, the leading professional services provider, and Cirium, the leading aviation data provider.” The trials that Neuron conducts will demonstrate different aspects of future flight and advanced air mobility for both unmanned aircraft and eVTOLs.

Pictured here is Neuron’s platform for tracking drones and other aircraft. (Neuron)

When asked about targeted end-users and applications, Greenwood explained that the service is provided for drone operators. “To characterize the situation at the moment, aviation is pretty much broken. Unmanned aircraft, particularly drones, have to fly within the visual line of sight, which is hugely limiting. Our technology allows pilots to fly to the limits of the aircraft’s capability.”

In enabling advanced air mobility, Greenwood asks, is it more important to have traffic managers or to know where the aircraft are? “I think you have to know where the aircraft are. We have lots of UTMs but we have no way of knowing where the traffic is, or sharing that traffic positional data with other aircraft. There’s a fundamental issue that really needs to be considered about how UTMs are going to work together and how they are going to have the data that they need to actually manage unmanned or crewed traffic at these increased distances.”

Neuron’s James Dunthorne added, “A lot of work going on has been developing core infrastructure around UTM services. Part of that relies on a distributed architecture—the DSS—which is essentially a telephone directory for all the UTMs so they can interact with each other. One of the core fundamental missing pieces is around the airspace picture about where all the aircraft are. That piece hasn’t really been solved yet, and this is where we’ve been focusing our energy.

NASA’s development of a traffic management system for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) which was announced last week is intended to enable growth of UAS operations at lower altitudes for civilian applications. Dunthorne commented that this system “essentially provides instructions for drones on how to avoid each other, how to navigate through the airspace. It’s more about what you do with the data, not how you get the data in the first place.” In comparison, he says, Neuron is more focused on how to get the data to make decisions, and the UTM subsequently will provide the ability to make those decisions.

In the big picture, Dunthorne explained, “We’re trying to create an ecosystem where the communications between these vehicles can happen over shared infrastructure. With multiple competing systems used for communicating, what you end up with is siloed data which becomes unsafe. You can’t have three different views of the sky. There clearly needs to be some form of shared infrastructure.” Hedera allows Neuron to independently audit every single transaction that goes through their network.

Christian Hasker of Hedera commented on another benefit of using their system: “One of the promises of these new modes of transportation is that they are much more gentle on the environment than existing modes of transportation. The Hedera network is by far the most sustainable network. It is orders of magnitude more efficient than other networks. The governing council actually purchases carbon offsets to make the entire network carbon negative.”

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Ultra-Compact SkyDrive eVTOL Debuts at CES 2022

SkyDrive’s SD-03, a demonstration model for its SD-05 air taxi, was unveiled at the CES 2022 event in Las Vegas. (SkyDrive)

Tokyo-based startup SkyDrive revealed its full-scale demonstration model SD-03 aircraft at CES 2022 (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas last week. The vehicle has completed testing for piloted flight, and the Model SD-05 air taxi is already in development, having received its type certification from the Japanese transportation ministry—which no other developers in the country have achieved so far.

SkyDrive develops zero-emission aircraft, including cargo drones and manned vehicles. The startup was founded in 2018 and began performing driving and indoor flight tests of its unmanned SD-01 vehicle in the same year. Its first public flight test with a manned aircraft, its SD-03 model, was accomplished in 2020, and the team continues to work towards commercialization with a goal of presenting its SD-05 air taxi at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka. SkyDrive’s cargo drones are already employed at work sites in mountainous areas of Japan. The drones can carry payloads of over 66 pounds.

SkyDrive’s SD-03 successfully completed a manned flight test in 2020. (SkyDrive)

The Chief Operating Officer of SkyDrive, Takehiro Sato, remarked, “The SD-03 model is the culmination of our expertise in drone technologies and aerodynamic engineering. What we want to see in the future is that SkyDrive’s emission-free vehicles take off from and land in your parking lot and helipads atop buildings, making door-to-door air travel a realistic choice of daily urban transportation,” as quoted in the announcement.

SkyDrive’s aircraft achieved type certification at the end of October from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT). The type certificate from MLIT confirms that the aircraft’s design, structure, and performance adheres to specific safety and environmental requirements.

The air taxi achieved type certification in Japan in October 2021.

The first manned flight of the SD-03 model that took place in August 2020 lasted four minutes and carried one person. PR Manager Mayumi Ishii mentioned in an interview that one of the main roadblocks for the aircraft is its weight. “We hope we will have a final version by approximately 2040, but we are aiming to have a vehicle flying by the Osaka Expo in 2025,” she said.

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U.S. Air Force Makes New AFWERX Investment in Boom Supersonic Airliner Research

Boom Supersonic anticipates the first flight of its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft, pictured here at their Denver, Colorado hangar, to occur in 2022. (Boom Supersonic)

Boom Supersonic, the Denver, Colorado-based aerospace company developing a supersonic airliner capable of flying at Mach 1.7, announced a new contract award from the U.S. Air Force on Tuesday valued at up to $60 million. The Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) contract, issued to Boom through the Air Force’s innovation arm, AFWERX, and its AFVentures division, will be used to accelerate research and development of military applications for Overture—the supersonic commercial airliner currently under development.

According to Boom’s Jan. 11 announcement of the new contract, potential defense users and applications for a military variant of Overture could include “executive transport; Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance; Special Operations Forces; and the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF).”

United Airlines will acquire 15 supersonic airliners under a deal announced with Boom last summer. Pictured here is a computer-generated rendering of what United’s future Overture aircraft could look like. (Boom Supersonic)

Tuesday’s announcement is the latest financial investment by the Air Force in Boom, and a substantial increase over the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 contract award issued in September 2020 toward the development of a military executive transport configuration of Overture. Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, said in the Tuesday announcement that the STRATFI contract allows the company to “collaborate with the Air Force on the unique requirements and needs for global military missions, ultimately allowing Boom to better satisfy the needs of the Air Force where it uses commercially-derived aircraft. As a potential future platform for the Air Force, Overture would offer the valuable advantage of time, an unmatched option domestically and internationally.”

2021 was a year of progress on several aspects of Boom’s future supersonic air transportation plans, including the addition of Dr. Mark J. Lewis, Executive Director of the National Defense Industrial Association’s Emerging Technologies Institute—and one of the leading hypersonic experts in the U.S.—to its Advisory Council. American Express also became one of the latest investors in Boom through its Amex Ventures arm, and United Airlines committed to a purchase of 15 Overture airliners in July.

Boom’s current supersonic research and development focus revolves around its XB-1, the sub-scale supersonic demonstrator aircraft first unveiled in October 2020, which the company expects to make its maiden flight in 2022. The company also anticipates breaking ground on its manufacturing facility for Overture this year, with future targets including rolling out Overture in 2025, flying Overture in 2026, and carrying passengers by 2029.

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Airbus, Boeing Report 2021 Commercial Aircraft Deliveries

(Photo: Airbus)

Airbus and Boeing reported their full-year 2021 commercial aircraft deliveries this week, with both of the manufacturers seeing increases over 2020 delivery activity. Both OEMs plan on providing more details in press conferences scheduled to occur over the next month.

Airbus

The reported delivery total for Airbus includes 611 commercial aircraft to 88 customers last year, up from 566 in 2020. According to a Jan. 10 announcement from the French airplane maker, Airbus completed 483 total A320 family deliveries last year and also more than doubled its gross order intake compared to 2020 with “771 new sales (507 net).”

Guillaume Faury, Airbus Chief Executive Officer, described the 2021 results as a year that “saw significant orders from airlines worldwide, signaling confidence in the sustainable growth of air travel post-COVID. While uncertainties remain, we are on track to lift production through 2022 to meet our customers’ requirements.”

The company also notes that 25% of its commercial aircraft were transported to airlines through the “e-Delivery” process that uses a new electronic Transfer-of-Title and ferry flight approach introduced by Airbus in 2020 to reduce the need for airlines to travel to receive newly manufactured aircraft. Air Lease Corporation also became the launch customer of the A350 Freighter—the air cargo variant of the A350 introduced by Airbus last year—during the Dubai Air Show in November.

Airbus published this infographic showing its order and delivery activity last year along with its 2021 results. (Airbus)

At the end of 2021, the Airbus commercial aircraft order backlog stood at 7,082 aircraft.

Boeing

Boeing’s 2021 delivery total of 340 commercial aircraft more than doubled the 157 that the company delivered in 2020, reflecting a staggered lifting of the 737 MAX grounding by civil aviation regulators internationally.

The results reflect the COVID-19 recovery period both companies went through in 2021, a year where Boeing was also able to re-start deliveries of its 737 MAX to airlines in countries that lifted bans on the model. 2021 deliveries reported by Boeing come following a significant fleet order win by the company last week by all-Airbus fleet operator Allegiant Air for up to 100 total 737 MAX aircraft.

One issue that remains unresolved for Boeing is the temporary suspension of 787 Dreamliner deliveries enacted in July when 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. Only 14 total 787s were delivered last year, compared to 41 in 2020, with Boeing still un-determined on a re-start date for the 105 Dreamliners currently sitting in inventory awaiting the suspension to be lifted.

According to a report published Tuesday by The Associated Press, the Chicago-based company reported a total of 479 net orders in 2021, slightly lagging behind the 507 recorded by Airbus after both accounted for order cancellations.

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Aptiv Reaches New $4.3 Billion Agreement to Acquire Wind River

Wind River CEO Kevin Dallas (left) and Aptiv CEO Kevin Clark (right) announced Aptiv’s $4.3 billion acquisition of Wind River on Jan. 11. (Aptiv)

Dublin, Ireland-based auto parts maker Aptiv announced a new agreement on Tuesday to acquire mission-critical software provider Wind River for $4.3 billion from TPG. Under the agreement, Wind River will become a stand-alone business unit within Aptiv’s Advanced Safety and User Experience division.

The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, comes four years after TPG—a San Francisco-based alternative asset management firm—acquired Wind River from Intel. While Aptiv’s acquisition of Wind River will focus on exploiting their technology to enable increasingly software-defined automotive systems, Wind River remains one of the largest suppliers of real time operating systems (RTOS) and intelligent edge solutions to the aerospace and defense industry. Their VxWorks 653 RTOS for example has been used for avionics enablement on the Airbus A400M, Boeing 787 and Northrop Grumman’s Black Hawk UH-60V cockpit upgrade program among others.

Kevin Dallas, president and chief executive officer of Wind River, stated in the company’s announcement of the acquisition that, “Combining Wind River’s industry-leading software, customer base and talent with Aptiv’s complementary technologies, global resources and scale will realize our vision of the new machine economy. Together we will accelerate the digital transformation of our customers across industries through best-in-class intelligent systems software.”

In recent years, Wind River has shifted its focus to supplying software for what the company describes as the “intelligent edge,” or the increasingly expanding scope of connected systems and devices that are constantly transmitting, receiving, analyzing and processing data. Christine Stevens, who served as the director of aerospace and defense business development for Wind River through August of last year, described the digital transformation that the company envisions avionics—and mission critical electronics systems in other industries—undergoing within the next decade.

“Digitally transformed avionics will rely heavily on advanced software for motion planning, trajectory prediction, and predictive analysis integrated with sensor fusion. These systems will analyze massive amounts of data to perform next gen functions. They can develop and deploy systems running applications such as machine learning and analytics. This allows them to make constant improvements as part of a digital feedback loop, which in turn enables endless adaptability,” Stevens wrote in an April 2021 blog post.

Kevin Clark, president and chief executive officer of Aptiv, in a statement released by the company, said that the acquisition is timely for his company as they look to compete in the automotive industry’s “largest transformation in over a century, as connected, software-defined vehicles increasingly become critical elements of the broader intelligent ecosystem.”

During a conference call held with investors announcing the acquisition Tuesday, Clark said that the combination of their existing automotive capabilities and Wind River’s cloud-native software platform will allow them to create the type of digital feedback loop and cloud-based fleet management for cars that many of their automotive manufacturing customers want to establish.

“We’re more confident than ever that the software-defined vehicle will become one of the most important devices on the intelligent edge requiring grater levels of in-vehicle compute and connectivity,” Clark said.

Wind River generated approximately $400 million in revenue in 2021. Clark expects Aptiv to officially close the acquisition with regulatory approval later this year.

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Aquiline Becomes First U.S. Drone Manufacturer to Establish Insurance Subsidiary

Hartford, Connecticut-based drone manufacturer Aquiline Drones is the first in the U.S. to establish its own insurance subsidiary. (Photo: Aquiline Drones)

Aquiline Drones Corporation, based in Hartford, Connecticut, has become the first drone manufacturer in the U.S. to create its own insurance subsidiary (ADIC). Barry Alexander, Founder and CEO of Aquiline Drones (AD), stated in the company’s announcement, “Our goal is to introduce various aspects of safety at every level and opportunity in a UAV/drone operations environment, for every drone business or individual operator, in keeping them safe and compliant as well as protecting the interest of the general public.”

AD was established in January 2019 after four years in incubation. The recent creation of ADIC serves to meet the parent company’s various risk management needs and to help ensure AD’s profitability by providing tax advantages. With this insurance license, AD can assume the risk of all of its companies and insure its partners and affiliates. Additionally, this development allows AD to indemnify its product and service offerings as well as the products used by the company’s professional drone service providers across the country.

Aquiline Drones’ Spartacus MAX (Photo: Aquiline Drones)

Benefits resulting from the newly formed captive insurance company include “writing insurance policies to cover multiple lines of commercial UAV/drone operations which are based on AD’s definitive risk mitigation and management protocols,” according to the press release. These operations range from drone manufacturing and safety training to cloud-connected drone operations.

In an interview conducted via email, Aquiline Drones founder Barry Alexander told Avionics International that the company is set to achieve several milestones in 2022. The first of their goals is “to establish the AD Drone and Cloud Technology Ecosystem as the national de facto standard for advanced commercial drone operations and UAV mission management applications.” Second, he expects Aquiline Drones’ IPO to take place by mid-summer. Third, by March, two strategic acquisitions that are currently underway will be announced. Another priority this year: “Making Aquiline Drones Indemnity Corporation the national standard for commercial drone liability insurance—products and services,” said Alexander.

Pictured: CEO Barry Alexander, who founded Aquiline Drones in January 2019 after a four-year incubation phase (Photo: Aquiline Drones)

AD announced a partnership in December 2020 with Drone Volt, a publicly-traded French drone manufacturer. Just a few months later, they acquired 50% of UAS manufacturer AerialTronics from Drone Volt, a $9 million purchase. AD next acquired ElluminAi Labs in September 2021 in order to support further development of the Spartacus AI framework. In the same month, the company announced a teaming agreement with AWARE—an incident response platform that enhances situational awareness in a crisis—“to enhance the ability to comprehensively respond to any emergency incident,” Alexander commented.

The most common applications for AD’s drones include search and rescue, law enforcement, asset inspections, fighting fires, and perimeter security, according to Alexander. In the coming years, he predicts “a more rapid adoption of drone services in areas and applications that have greater societal impacts such as life-saving scenarios and other areas where danger to man is minimized, such as first-responder services—i.e., law enforcement, firefighting, EMS, and search and rescue.”

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FAA Identifies 50 US Airports for New 5G Buffer Zones

An American Airlines aircraft lands at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, one of 50 airports identified by the FAA as requiring 5G C-Band “buffer zones.” (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport)

The FAA on Jan. 7 published a new list of the 50 U.S. airports that will have “buffer zones” around them once 5G C-band services come online later this month.

Identification of the airports is the latest policy update from the agency related to its ongoing efforts to establish a long-term solution that allows new 5G C-band wireless services and flight operations to safely co-exist throughout the National Airspace System (NAS). According to the statement published by the FAA, the list of airports was developed based on input from aviation industry leaders, and the traffic volume, number of low-visibility days on average, and geographic location were all determining factors in developing the list.

“The wireless companies agreed to turn off transmitters and make other adjustments near these airports for six months to minimize potential 5G interference with sensitive aircraft instruments used in low-visibility landings,” the FAA said in a statement published on its website.

Some of the largest and busiest airports in the U.S.—based on the latest available air traffic data—are included in the list. Dallas/Fort Worth International, Chicago O’Hare International, and Los Angeles International were among the airports with the highest amount of traffic listed—with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport being one of the most notable to be left off the list. Airports located in cities where 5G C-Band is not being deployed were left off the list, with the FAA naming Denver International and Ronald Regan Washington National Airport as some examples of areas where the new services are not being deployed.

In an emailed statement to Avionics International, a representative for the FAA said that the buffer zones will follow the guidance outlined by AT&T and Verizon on the fifth page of the letter sent to the agency to negotiate a new agreement.

Based on the guidance provided by the two companies in the letter, the buffer zones include “limit power radiated below the horizon to no more than 62 dBm/MHz” and “to limit radiated power for all of their 5G C-Band base stations directed skyward above the horizon to even lower levels.” Moreover, the buffer zones are three-dimensional, yielding lower measured power levels from 5G C-Band stations on all airport surfaces and up to 300 feet above airports and more than one mile from airport runways.

“AT&T and Verizon also agreed to limit radiated power from 5G base stations to even lower levels when those base stations are located in line with airport runways. This commitment can apply to base stations located as far as 1,000 feet from a runway,” the letter says.

Low visibility landings are still being permitted at the airports included in the list if they’re being performed by aircraft that have “an altimeter that has been proven to be accurate and reliable in the U.S. 5G C-band environment,” according to the FAA.

A new infographic published by the FAA shows the differences in how 5G C-Band has been deployed in France and the U.S. (FAA)

The list comes following several months of ongoing discussions between aviation and wireless industry/government leadership to address concerns raised by the FAA regarding the potential risk of signal interference issues that the operation of 5G C-band services could cause to radar and radio altimeters used by air transport category aircraft. Last week, AT&T and Verizon reached an agreement with the aviation industry to delay the planned Jan. 5 deployment date of its new 5G C-Band wireless network services.

Aircraft radar altimeters operate within 4.2–4.4 GHz, the lower half of which falls within the C-Band—a frequency range from 3.7–4.2 GHz where the combination of the range of signal transmissions and capacity are optimum. The 5G wireless networks scheduled to be switched on by AT&T and Verizon this month will occur within the 3.7–3.98 GHz frequency range, close to the altimeters, which has left aviation industry experts with concerns over signal interference issues. In December, the FAA published new airworthiness directives (ADs) that will prohibit certain types of advanced fixed and rotary wing landing procedures that rely on the use of radar altimeter data.

Separate from the list of identified airports, the FAA also published a new “5G and Aviation Safety” page to its website, providing answers to some of the most frequently asked questions it has been receiving in relation to the deployment of the new 5G networks. Among the answers given are an explanation of the differences between the 5G deployment that has already occurred in France and the mitigation strategy around airports employed by the French government compared to what the FAA is doing in the U.S.

“5G power levels are lower in France. In the U.S., even the planned temporary nationwide lower power levels will be 2.5x higher than in France,” according to the FAA’s new 5G page. “In France, the government required that antenna must be tilted downward to limit harmful interference. Similar restrictions do not apply to the U.S. deployment.”

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FAA Authorizes 35 Miles of BVLOS Drone Operations for NUAIR

The FAA has now authorized NUAIR and the New York UAS Test Site for beyond visual line of sight drone operations across 35 miles of the 50-mile drone corridor in New York State. (Photo: NUAIR)

New York-based nonprofit NUAIR (Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance), which manages operations at the New York UAS Test Site, received authorization this week from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations in 35 miles of airspace. The designated airspace is within New York’s 50-mile drone corridor that connects the cities of Rome and Syracuse, NY. NUAIR’s long-term mission is to promote the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS).

NUAIR and the Test Site were first authorized for BVLOS in 2019 in a small airspace at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, NY. Local county executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. commented on the newest authorization in a press release this week, saying: “The one-of-a-kind testing, research and development that occurs here is elevating the entire industry. This latest FAA authorization will allow our 50-mile drone corridor to push the limits of what is possible.”

This image shows the location of the 50-mile drone corridor in New York which reaches from Syracuse to Rome. (Photo: Google Maps)

A ground-based surveillance system (GBSS) that is integrated throughout the 50-mile drone corridor allows NUAIR to monitor air traffic in order to quickly detect any intruder aircraft occurring.

Tony Basile, NUAIR’s chief of operations, looks forward to the nonprofit’s expanded ability to fly BVLOS, which he says will allow their team “to test more advanced, long-range flights and help us prove BVLOS operations can be done safely—the key component in realizing the true economic advantage of commercial drone operations.” Some of these operations will likely include medical and package deliveries.

In June 2021, a team completed a medical delivery via drone as part of a project to test the feasibility of such an operation. The NUAIR alliance collaborated with Virginia-based company DroneUp and SUNY Upstate Medical University to successfully deliver a COVID-19 test kit. While this was a significant achievement, some roadblocks to enabling routine medical deliveries via drone include the high cost of operating the drone, risk of exposure to biohazardous materials, and the need to receive FAA approval for specific drone models to make such deliveries.

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Joby Aviation Receives FAA and USAF Approval For Second Prototype Aircraft

Joby’s second pre-production prototype of its eVTOL aircraft was just awarded the Special Airworthiness Certification by the FAA and given airworthiness approval from the USAF. (Photo: Joby)

FAA Special Airworthiness Certification and U.S. Air Force Airworthiness Approval were both awarded to Joby Aviation for the company’s second pre-production prototype aircraft. The company achieved an initial (stage 2) signed G-1 in 2019 and went on to become the first eVTOL company to sign a G-1 (stage 4) certification basis with the FAA in 2020. After receiving these latest approvals for its second pre-production prototype, Joby will be able to ramp up flight testing in 2022 and continue working towards a commercial operations launch date in 2024.

Joby’s all-electric aircraft currently has a maximum range of 150 miles and can operate at a top speed of 200 mph. It has a four-passenger capacity in addition to a pilot. Later this month, the second pre-production aircraft will begin flying as part of the company’s contract with the US Air Force’s Agility Prime initiative. Over 1,000 test flights have already been completed in the last decade, and that number is expected to increase dramatically to achieve Joby’s goal of commencing passenger service in 2024.

Commercial operations of Joby’s eVTOL aircraft could begin in 2024.

Some of the company’s priorities with its eVTOL aircraft are sustainability, speed, and a low operating volume to minimize disturbance to communities. Joby shared a video demonstrating the low noise profile of its aircraft during flyover along with the statement, “We aim for our aircraft to blend into the background environment of communities in which we operate, enabling aerial ridesharing without any compromises.”

Joby’s aircraft achieved another milestone last year as the first to test with NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign. The first set of National Campaign tests are planned to occur in 2022 and will involve additional flight scenarios and vehicle partners. However, Joby’s flight tests with NASA occurred in September and focused primarily on collecting vehicle performance and acoustic data. The findings could be used by NASA to determine any gaps in current regulations.

Joby’s aircraft was designed with speed optimization and a low noise profile in mind. (Photo: Joby)

Founder and CEO JoeBen Bevirt said in the press release, “Our 2021 flight test program delivered a wealth of information and experience to support our program. With two aircraft flying at the same time, we’ll be able to increase the speed of our learnings as planned, while continuing to fulfill the requirements of our Agility Prime contract.”

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