OEMs have a variety of new business aircraft models—from helicopters to long-range jets—under development and coming to market soon. They are bringing to market a range of technological advancements that hold the promise of greater range, efficiency, safety, and passenger comfort.
Nineteen-year-old Jack Sweeney made headlines for creating Twitter accounts that track private jets owned by people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates. Musk offered him $5,000 to delete the accounts, but Sweeney claimed to be having so much fun keeping tabs on the billionaire’s jet, a Gulfstream G650ER, that the money wasn’t enough to motivate him to stop.
Aircraft tracking services like FlightAware and Flightradar24 have been around for a while. They make it easy to monitor flights by airliners, as well as private jets, using information provided by the FAA. But if you plug the tail number of Musk’s Gulfstream into FlightAware, you will see a message indicating that it is not available for public tracking on the request of the owner/operator.
Artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and machine learning are showing up everywhere in aviation, except in the cockpit and briefing rooms where pilots need it most. Instead, to gather critical information about a flight, pilots rely on tools and technology that are better suited for teletype machines or dot matrix printers. Today, most flight crews rely on a “wall of text” for weather briefings, Notams, and other information; this hasn’t changed in decades.
The origin of the Notam dates back to 1947. This notice alerts pilots to potential hazards such as runway closures, navaid outages, or other items that affect flight safety.
Embraer’s plans for a new conventionally powered turboprop have yet to crystalize as executives reconsider their timeframe targets for an industrial launch. While the company continues studies into the airplane’s technical characteristics, the previous launch target of the middle of this year appears unlikely to hold given that talks with potential suppliers will extend beyond original expectations, Embraer Commercial Aircraft CEO Arjan Meijer told AIN on Thursday.
“We aren’t going to hit the deadlines that we gave before and we won’t give a new deadline because we don’t want to be in a defensive position,” he said. “We’re not there with the system providers across the board. We’re trying to hit the design spot for the turboprop from all the different aspects, so if we don’t get there, we’re not launching. We need more time.”
Moya Aero’s efforts to bring an autonomous eVTOL aircraft to market were boosted this week by a $2 million grant from FINEP, a Brazilian government organization that promotes science, technology, and innovation. The startup, which is a spin-off from aerospace services group ACS Aviation, aims to start flight testing a technology demonstrator version of its all-electric vehicle in September 2023 as it pursues commercial applications such as cargo deliveries and crop-spraying.
Having launched the venture in 2020, co-founder and CEO Alexandre Zaramela said his team has now completed preliminary and critical design reviews for an aircraft that will have a payload of 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and a range of 110 kilometers (70 miles). Moya, which has so far supported its work with the proceeds from a seed funding round and earlier grants, has not published a timeline for getting the unnamed aircraft certified and into production.
Boom Supersonic has started construction of a 400,000-sq-ft factory in Greensboro, North Carolina, meant to house production of its Overture supersonic airliner, the Colorado-based company said on Thursday. What the company calls its Overture Superfactory sits on a 62-acre campus at the Piedmont Triad International Airport. Plans call for the facility to house the final assembly line, a test facility, and a customer delivery center for the Overture.
“Today’s groundbreaking for the Overture Superfactory represents a significant step forward in building sustainable and accessible supersonic travel for the world,” said Boom Supersonic president Kathy Savitt. “This milestone is a shared one and we are deeply appreciative of the input, leadership, and support of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, the local community, and the state of North Carolina.”
If you think you can model eVTOL aircraft charging based on the same systems used for electric cars, think again. That is the message from Josh Portlock, the CTO of Electro, an Australia-based company that manufactures electric aircraft charging products. Portlock delivered his pitch at the recent Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST) conference.
“The electric aviation revolution is coming and we are going to need high power standardized charging infrastructure to scale with global demand,” Portlock said. “Aviation charging is very different from automotive charging. Aircraft can’t drive right up to the charger like a car can, and they have wingspans to deal with. You need to move the charger and plug it into the aircraft because it’s likely out on the apron, with maybe half a dozen aircraft that might be in the way. You want to make sure that you can, as quickly as possible, start charging an aircraft.”
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