Charles Alcock

Lyte Aviation and the Advanced Air Mobility Institute believe they can transform daily commutes from Washington state's Bainbridge Island to Seattle and the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, replacing ferries with high-capacity, hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft like the in-development SkyBus LA-44.

Natilus's Kona autonomous cargo aircraft is a blended-wing-body design, which the company says is well suited to storing hydrogen fuel to maximize payload and range. It will use the ZA600 hydrogen-electric propulsion system being developed by ZeroAvia.

Merlin has deployed a pair of Cessna Caravan aircraft to continue testing of its autonomous flight technology at its new facility in New Zealand. The company says this process will include joint cargo delivery operations with local company Freightways.

NASA is using a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft to evaluate communications infrastructure for advanced air mobility, plus Electra.aero leaders are recognized for aeronautics achievements, ZeroAvia partners with Gen-H2 for hydrogen supplies, Moove launches an AAM modeling tool, and Ryse switches to a carbon fiber frame for its Recon personal eVTOL vehicle.

Business aviation professionals attending he European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva this week were able to sit in a full-scale cabin mock-up of the four-seat Pioneer Edition of the Lilium Jet eVTOL vehicle. Swiss operator Air-Dynamic agreed to purchase five of the all-electric aircraft and ASL Group confirmed an earlier memorandum of understanding to a firm order for six aircraft.

Vertical Aerospace is raising further funds to get its VX4 into commercial service with operators that include major airlines and South Korean ride-hailing group Kakao Mobility, which this week preordered 50 vehicles. But chief technology officer Michael Cervenka says its cash burn is stable compared with those of rival manufacturers.

This week, FutureFlight has updates on Merlin's progress toward the certification of its autonomous flight technology and how Eve Air Mobility is using a wind tunnel to test its eVTOL vehicle. Plus: how the design for SkyDrive's SD-05 eVTOL has been praised by industry experts...Jetson is adding a safety parachute to its single-seat eVTOL...VoltAero is building a factory to manufacture its Cassio hybrid-electric aircraft...and Doroni is seeking funds to bring its personal eVTOL to market.

Alton Aviation Consultancy sees eVTOL aircraft developers facing significant and costly challenges in the run-up to service launch in 2025 at a time when cash reserves are being rapidly spent. Besides getting new vehicles certified, companies need to step up plans for manufacturing and product support, and convince their prospective customer base why it should care about the new mode of public transportation.

Based on technical input from prospective customers and from partners including Safran, Stellantis, and Thales, Aura Aero has redesigned its hybrid-electric ERA 19-seater, which will now have eight electric motors and a pair of turbogenerators. Time spent changing the configuration, which the company says is now frozen, will push back the aircraft's first flight to 2026 and type certification to 2028, but the French start-up believes the resulting performance will deliver greater cost and carbon reductions for operators. Aura Aero is also preparing to start flight testing its Integral E all-electric training aircraft.