As Ascendance Flight Technologies prepares to fly the first full-scale prototype of its hybrid-electric Atea VTOL aircraft this year, it is already laying the groundwork for industrialization and scaled production. The French start-up recently announced an extension of its partnership with Capgemini Engineering that will support the company’s transition from technology demonstrations to commercialization. “We are in the production phase of our life-size flying prototype,” Ascendance co-founder and CEO Jean-Christophe Lambert told AIN.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is requesting public comments on proposed changes to its spectrum rules that would accommodate future advanced air mobility operations. Changes to the regulations, which govern the allocation and licensing of frequencies used for wireless communications, would “support innovation, growth, and safety needs of this burgeoning sector as well as other uncrewed aircraft systems, such as drones,” the FCC wrote in a statement on the notice of proposed rulemaking, which it published on January 17.

Private aviation group JetSetGo has started working with Eve Air Mobility on plans to introduce the eVTOL aircraft manufacturer’s Vector urban air traffic management software in India. The companies announced their partnership at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025 in New Delhi on January 21.

EHang this month expanded efforts to demonstrate the viability of multi-role operations with its autonomous EH216-S eVTOL aircraft by conducting demonstration sightseeing flights in China’s main business city Shanghai. Nine months after the manufacturer received its production certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, it is delivering aircraft to Chinese customers as it waits for the regulator to issue the operational certificates needed for commercial flights.

The U.S. Army is evaluating how an optionally piloted capability could make its helicopter operations more effective, in part by reducing the time required to train pilots. Through a cooperative research and development agreement announced on January 14, Skyryse has begun a project to explore how its SkyOS universal operating system could be installed on the Army’s 2,400 Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters and potentially other rotorcraft too.

Near Earth Autonomy has successfully developed and tested the use of autonomous small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) to more safely and efficiently conduct preflight checks of airliners. This was done under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program and in partnership with Boeing. Over the last six years, Near Earth Autonomy completed several rounds of test flights with its sUAS solution on Boeing airplanes operated by American Airlines and Emirates.

The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority has granted technical design approval to Skyports for the construction of its first commercial vertiport for eVTOL air taxi flights in Dubai. Skyports, which has headquarters in London, is working with California-based Joby Aviation to establish a ground infrastructure network in preparation for the launch of eVTOL air taxi services there in 2026.

EHang's new eVTOL flight operations center in the Chinese city of Shenzhen also serves as an "experience center" to give members of the public a close up look at what urban air mobility might deliver. This video shows a demonstration flight of the company's autonomous EH216-S two-seat model and a close up look at how the aircraft will be lifted up onto a vertiport pad for takeoff.