Joby and Reliable Robotics have demonstrated military use cases for their remotely-piloted airplanes as part of a U.S. Air Force agile combat employment exercise, both companies announced August 26. Led by the U.S. Air Force’s Afwerx innovation unit, the Autonomy Prime program conducted the Agile Flag 24-3 exercise with Joby and Reliable Robotics at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California from August 5 to August 9. During the exercise, both companies used their autonomous Cessna 208B Grand Caravans to transport cargo between military bases in California and Nevada.

NASA and MagniX yesterday unveiled the de Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft that they’re preparing to retrofit with a hybrid-electric propulsion system for the agency’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) program. Canadian regional airline Air Tindi provided the 45-year-old turboprop, which the EPFD program partners have converted to an experimental testbed. 

For decades, the team at TE Connectivity (TE) has been helping design safe and efficient electrical power management systems for everything from military planes to moon landers. Now TE is supporting a new frontier: the emerging Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) industry.

A European Union-backed project to build a hydrogen-electric powertrain for small commuter airplanes has selected H3 Dynamics to supply its aviation-grade hydrogen fuel cell systems for a technology demonstration. Led by Honeywell and electric airplane manufacturer Pipistrel, the “Hypotrade” (hydrogen fuel cell electric powertrain demonstration) consortium aims to design and build a 500-kilowatt, hybrid-electric powertrain that runs on hydrogen fuel cells. 

EHang has achieved its highest number of deliveries to date with its two-seat EH216-S autonomous eVTOL. Reporting financial results for the second quarter, the Chinese company said it delivered 49 of these aircraft in the second quarter—nearly twice the 26 it shipped in the first quarter.

The FAA has released the first iteration of its “Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Safety Assurance,” a 31-page document outlining the U.S. air safety regulator’s approach to safely integrating novel AI technologies in aviation. In addition to making AI safe, the FAA also seeks to identify ways that AI can make the industry safer, according to the strategy document. 

The ultraquiet and highly efficient electric ducted fans that Whisper Aero has developed for aircraft propulsion could someday end up inside NASA spacecraft—not in their propulsion systems, but as a key component of the ventilation systems. NASA awarded the Tennessee-based tech start-up a small business innovation research contract to design a quiet and efficient cabin ventilation system for crewed spacecraft, and that work could potentially extend to larger space habitats such as the International Space Station.

Lilium has completed the first phase of integration testing for the electric propulsion system that will power its eVTOL aircraft. On August 21, the German company said the results achieved at its electrical power system laboratory near Munich represent a significant milestone in its efforts to secure flight conditions approval and type certification for its four- to six-passenger Lilium Jet.