Flight booking platform Surf Air Mobility will be going public on its own following the termination this week of its $1.42 billion merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Tuscan Holdings Corporation II. The “mutually agreed” termination was approved by both companies’ board of directors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a separate, confidential filing with the SEC this week, Surf Air Mobility announced plans to pursue a direct listing of its common stock. The plan awaits approval from the SEC. A Surf Air spokeswoman told AIN that the company could not comment further on the termination of the Tuscan Holdings merger nor its plans for a direct listing.
Surf Air Mobility announced the SPAC merger in May, expecting to raise about $467 million in funding for its plan to integrate electric aircraft into the fleets of its partner operators.
That deal came on the heels of Surf Air Mobility scuttling its plans in April to acquire Ampaire, which is developing a hybrid-electric version of the Cessna Grand Caravan. Surf Air first announced the Ampaire acquisition in February 2021.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has installed the single GE F414-GE-100 engine in NASA’s X-59 supersonic research aircraft ahead of anticipated first flight early next year. The engine is rated to 22,000 pounds of thrust and is expected to propel the X-59 to speeds up to Mach 1.4 at 55,000 feet.;
The X-59 will ultimately be used to measure the acoustical impact of mitigated sonic boom technologies via community overflights now expected to take place beginning in 2025 and could ultimately pave the way for civilian supersonic flights in U.S. airspace. The aircraft is designed to reduce the sound of sonic booms to a quiet sonic “thump.”
Following first flight, NASA will conduct acoustic validation flights of the aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. There, the agency will test the tools used to predict and measure the sound level of the sonic thump, as well as verify that the X-59 is ready to fly in the National Airspace System. Community overflights will begin thereafter. NASA has yet to select those communities.
Data from those overflights will include public opinion surveys of the aircraft’s acoustic footprint. The data will then be shared with national and international regulators to empower them to consider enabling noise standards for civil supersonic flight over land.
Following protests in Europe last week staged against private aviation, similar events on a lesser scale disrupted activities at several U.S. airports in California, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Washington state. The protests took place last Thursday as world leaders gathered in Egypt for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and in the wake of several high-profile flight shaming instances.
The peaceful demonstrations in the U.S.—which included activist groups Extinction Rebellion and scientists from affiliated organization Scientist Rebellion—targeted airports with high private aviation traffic, including dedicated general aviation enclaves such as New York City-area Teterboro Airport and Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.
These demonstrations resulted in arrests at several locations, including at the Wilson Air Center FBO at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, where some participants chained themselves to airport access gates. Among those detained on charges of misdemeanor trespassing was NASA climatologist Peter Kalmus, who, according to the New York Times, was careful to note that his personal opinions should have no reflection upon his employer.
At Teterboro Airport, approximately two dozen protestors temporarily blocked the main entrance at one of the country’s busiest private aviation hubs for several hours until arrests were made, while at King County International Airport/Boeing Field in Seattle, a similar number encamped outside the Signature Aviation FBO. At Van Nuys, activists blocked the NetJets parking lot entrance.
MRO provider Summit Aviation has completed the move of its North Carolina operation to a 49,000-sq-ft building in Greensboro. The Delaware-based company—created by Greenwich AeroGroup after retaining the manufacturing operations of Atlantic Aero in its divestiture to Landmark Aviation—gains 19,000 more square feet with the move from its former location in Kernersville.
“The increased space provides us with the opportunity to expand our capabilities and add new machinery that allows us to serve our aviation and other types of industry customers in a capacity we haven’t been able to do prior to this move,” said Summit Aviation Greensboro manufacturing director Garrett Wishon.
New machinery at Summit includes a large five-axis mill that enables technicians to machine components such as landing gear, leading edges, and wing spars up to 12 feet long. The building also features an open floor plan that allows the company to create an optimal flow for lean manufacturing.
In addition to aircraft maintenance, Summit Aviation offers modifications, avionics installation, engine servicing, mission equipment integration, paint, FBO services, sales and leasing, field training, flight testing support, and over-the-counter part sales. It is a factory-authorized service center for Bell, Blackhawk, Cessna, Raisbeck Engineering, and Sikorsky.
When It Comes to Connectivity, Capacity Is King
From email to streaming video, today’s business jet travelers demand the same connectivity experience in the cabin as they enjoy in their offices. The only way to meet that expectation is to use a network with the peak output capacity required to avoid data slowdowns.
Archer Aviation yesterday publicly revealed at its Palo Alto, California facility a production version of the four-seat eVTOL the company aims to get into service in 2025.
Dubbed Midnight, the all-electric aircraft bears similarities to Archer’s subscale Maker technology demonstrator, a two-seat prototype the company has been flight testing over the past year. Both are fixed-wing models with 12 rotors—six stationary propellers on the wing trailing edges provide lift, while the six others on the wing leading edges tilt forward to transition from hover to cruise flight.
Also yesterday, Archer announced two key suppliers for the program, with Garmin selected to provide its G3000 integrated flight deck for the aircraft and Taiwan's Molicel chosen as the source for its lithium-ion battery cells. Archer said it has now appointed almost two-thirds of the suppliers for Midnight, including Honeywell (flight control actuators and thermal management), Mecaer (landing gear), FACC (parts of the fuselage and wing), and Hexcel (composites).
On Monday, the company said its manufacturing facility for Midnight will be in Covington, Georgia, on a 96-acre site adjacent to Covington Municipal Airport (KCVC). The 350,000-sq-ft facility—expected to open in the first half of 2024—would be able to produce 650 Midnight eVTOLs annually. A potential 550,000-sq-ft expansion would boost that to about 2,300 aircraft per year, according to Archer.
Want more? You can find a longer version of this article at FutureFlight.aero, a news and information resource developed by AIN to provide objective coverage and analysis of cutting-edge aviation technology.
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An Australian coroner’s court is looking into the circumstances surrounding a deadly 2020 Canberra-area Orroral Valley brushfire, ignited when an army MRH-90 helicopter made an out-of-plan landing for a crew bathroom break. The inferno began on January 27 shortly after 1:38 p.m. local time when the helicopter landed with its searchlight turned on, sparking the blaze and scorching the underside of the helicopter. The illuminated searchlight was estimated to have a contact temperature of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and the helicopter was on the ground for less than one minute.
One of the helicopter’s pilots told the inquest that the rotor downwash from the helicopter as it was leaving acted like a “blowtorch” on the flames. The ensuing conflagration raged on for five weeks and consumed 215,000 acres, burning about 80 percent of Namadgi National Park and 22 percent of Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
Officials want to know why it took the crew a full 45 minutes to report the fire after it started, long after the helicopter had made the 17-minute flight back to Canberra Airport, and why the aircraft commander did not know that the searchlight would be hot enough to start a fire.
The helicopter was dispatched to scout potential firefighting helicopter landing locations, and the searchlight was being used due to localized smoky conditions to alert other aircraft of the helicopter’s presence.
The Isle of Man registry (IOMAR) has granted AviationManuals pre-approval for its minimum equipment list (MEL) preamble, the Maryland-based developer of safety management system software and manuals announced this week.
This approval from the business aircraft registry will reduce the content that needs full review during the MEL approval process, thereby saving processing time for the company’s clients. AviationManuals said it underwent an extensive evaluation for the approval, including a thorough check of its preamble and documents. IOMAR’s regulatory standards are among the highest in the business aviation industry.
“Our team is highly dedicated to compliance and aviation safety,” said AviationManuals CEO Mark Baier. “We closely follow all regulations and best practices enabling AviationManuals to produce MELs at the highest level. This pre-approval with IOMAR gives our clients and subscribers the peace of mind we always strive for.”
NC Carpet Binding—a manufacturer of sewing machines used for fabricating business aircraft carpeting and upholstery—has entered into an agreement with ABM International, which makes stitching sewing machines, to distribute the latter’s CNC stitching equipment. The CNC quilters can, with just one operator, sew up complete seatback patterns with precision and accuracy with a push of a button, according to the companies.
“Most of our clients are looking to streamline their sewing operation, and we feel ABM’s machine options and unrivaled service can’t be matched,” said Mal Maher, NC Carpet’s CEO. He added that “many of their key components are U.S.-made.”
Those purchasing an ABM stitching machine from NC Carpet directly will get a discount, free shipping, white-glove setup, two days of on-site training, three-year warranty, and three free annual maintenance visits, Maher said.
The agreement was finalized last month at NBAA-BACE. “We decided to align ourselves with ABM because they share the same core values: same-day tech support and precision sewing machines,” Maher said. Additional common distinctions: Both NC Carpet, in North Carolina, and Texas-based ABM are family owned and are celebrating their 75th anniversaries.
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