AAMI Weekly Newsletter, June 14th, 2024
Advanced Air Mobility International
The global hub for #engineering and technical developments in Advanced Air Mobility and Urban Air Mobility.
Here’s a roundup of this week’s top news and developments in the advanced air mobility industry.
Avincis and Airbus have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to partner on the development of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).
The companies will collaborate to explore opportunities for operating eVTOL aircraft throughout Europe.
Balkiz Sarihan , Head of Urban Air Mobility at Airbus, added; “We’re pleased to partner with Avincis. Their established operational network, which is essential to enabling key missions such as emergency medical services, search and rescue, and fire-fighting, will be a valuable tool to collectively explore the mission potential of CityAirbus NextGen.
“Through this collaboration we will explore how eVTOLs can contribute to missions that save lives and protect communities, a shared goal among our two companies.”
eVertiSKY and Volatus Infrastructure (VI&E Solutions) are advancing their efforts to establish comprehensive operational infrastructure for urban air mobility (UAM) in Chicago.?
The Chicago UAM Living Labs initiative, which began January 2024, focuses on identifying commercialization members whose capabilities will contribute to the UAM value chain, essential for establishing Chicago’s first UAM Vertiport.
Grant Fisk , CEO of VI&E Solutions, said; “Our collaboration with eVertiSKY is a commitment to revolutionizing urban air mobility infrastructure. This partnership extends beyond the vertiport, fostering a truly integrated transportation ecosystem. Together, we are driving forward the future of transportation.”
Archer 's Midnight aircraft has successfully completed transition flying at a speed of more than 100mph.
Archer has now achieved transition with two different full-scale eVTOL aircraft. At ~6,500lbs, Midnight is believed to be one of the largest eVTOL aircraft to complete transition, which is critical to being able to carry commercially viable passenger payloads.?
Adam Goldstein , Archer’s Founder and CEO, said; “Transitioning two generations of full-scale eVTOL aircraft in less than 2 years is another remarkable achievement for Archer’s team. This shows we continue to successfully execute against our plan to create the most efficient path to market with an aircraft that is designed for certification and to be manufactured efficiently at scale.”?
Geoffrey Bower , Archer’s Chief Engineer, said; “Successfully completing the transition from hover to wing-borne flight with a full-scale eVTOL aircraft is a tremendous engineering feat that only a handful of companies in the world have achieved.
“Over the seven eVTOL aircraft I’ve built and flown in my career, they have gotten progressively larger as we pursued payloads that made the aircraft platform commercially viable. Midnight is believed to be one of the largest eVTOL aircraft ever to achieve transition and one of the first that is purpose built to carry enough passengers to be able to operate a successful air taxi business. I’m extremely proud of Archer’s team as we have now achieved this milestone with two generations of full-scale aircraft.”
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Skyports Infrastructure has partnered with Unified Aviation to provide an infrastructure solution for air taxi take-off and landing.?
This partnership will support rapid roll-out of Skyports’ infrastructure globally, facilitating agile and responsive vertiport network growth.
Duncan Walker , Chief Executive Officer, Skyports, said; “Scalable, flexible, and rapidly deployable vertiport infrastructure is critically important to accelerating AAM service roll-out, particularly in the early years of the industry.
“Our partnership with Unified Aviation brings specialised expertise in integrated heliport and vertiport design and training to reduce time to market and provide cost-effective, pre-certified landing sites. Our Agile Vertiport Network strategy solves some of the complex considerations when developing AAM networks, providing the vertiport solutions for any given location.”
South Florida-based AAM operator, UrbanLink Air Mobility , has named Raymond C Sisson as President.?
Sisson, a seasoned aircraft leasing executive who has successfully raised over $15 billion in aircraft acquisitions, will play a key role in fueling UrbanLink’s growth.
As President, Sisson will focus on raising capital to finance UrbanLink’s initial order for 20 Lilium Jets and spearhead the creation of an in-house aircraft leasing company to hold UrbanLink’s aircraft orders.
Ed Wegel , UrbanLink’s Founder and Chairman, said; “Ray is one of the most highly respected aircraft leasing CEOs, and we are delighted he will be leading our team to raise the necessary funding to grow our fleet to 100+ eVTOL aircraft over the next three years.
“Ray’s leadership, experience and strong relationships with both aircraft equity and debt providers worldwide make him the ideal choice to develop our own in-house aircraft lessor, which will finance our eVTOL aircraft and provide capabilities to other eVTOL airlines worldwide.”
“I am excited to join UrbanLink as President as we prepare for our first eVTOL deliveries in 18 months,” Ray Sisson added. “To fuel UrbanLink’s growth, our goal is to raise over $1 billion, and I am confident we have the team in place to achieve this.”