Bruce Crumley is journalist and writer who has worked for Fortune, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, The Guardian, AFP, and was Paris correspondent and bureau chief for Time magazine specializing in political and terrorism reporting. He splits his time between Paris and Biarritz, and is the author of novel Maika‘i Stink Eye.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they’ve created an automated system allowing drones to select safe flight trajectories with what trials indicated was a 100% collision-free success rate.
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Drones are being used to inspect structures, deliver lunches, shuttle transplant organs, rush defibrillators to cardiac victims, and capture incredible first-person footage to thrill and entertain. Now the Ford Motor Company is looking to expand that list of UAV applications by cutting the waiting time for drivers with flat car batteries needing a jump start.
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Fast-moving drone delivery startup Flytrex had an eventful 2022, during which it considerably expanded its zones of operation as well as its list of retailers and restaurant partners. Today the company released its annual barometer of activity showing a corresponding jump in clients served last year – a whopping seven-fold increase over 2021 to “21,350 orders” flown.
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Nearly a year after introducing its Avata first-person view (FPV) drone, global camera UAV giant DJI today announced the release its Integra goggles and RC Motion 2 joystick products, both of which are designed to enhance user experience with the craft.
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French advanced air mobility (AAM) startup Ascendance Flight Technology says it is revving up its push to finalize the prototype of its ATEA hybrid vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane, thanks to new investment of €21 million ($22.6 million).
Toulouse-based Ascendance said it had raised the new financing from existing backers and several new investors including Bpifrance, a public-private fund that supports France’s most promising tech startups. Ascendance said the infusion will be used to finish the full-scale prototype of its ATEA VTOL, and begin test flights to prepare for certification and eventual large-scale production of the AAM plane.
The company says it has already signed 245 memos of understanding with customers keen on buying the aircraft.
Last October, Ascendance signed an agreement with Air France-KLM maintenance, repair, and operations unit AFI KLM E&M, making the Franco-Dutch airline group not only a potential buyer of ATEA VTOLs, but also a major industrial partner in servicing AAM craft.
Read more: AAM startup Ascendance links with Air France-KLM’s MRO unit
ATEA is designed to fly a maximum of 400 kilometers at 200 km/h, and boasts a quick 10-minute turnaround time. It is expected to take its first test flights this later year, before being featured in AAM demonstrations during the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024.
Unlike most AAM craft developers, Ascendance has conceived the five-seat ATEA VTOL to operate using a hybrid propulsion system. That Sterna solution uses distributed electric motorization compatible with both tradition or sustainable fuels, including hydrogen cells.
The concept was created by Ascendance founders, who are veterans of Airbus’s E-Fan program that continues development of the aviation giant’s all-electric passenger plane. Aware of the limited capacities of current battery technologies, however, they devised Sterna to use combustible materials or hydrogen cells to drive generators that create electric power the craft relies on.
Read: HevenDrones unveils its first of three hydrogen-powered drones planned for 2023
The new $22.6 million in funding to get an ATEA prototype aloft to enable testing and certification work follows an $11.7 million infusion Ascendance received in September of 2021.
Ascendance cofounder and CEO Jean-Christophe Lambert predicts the financing will prove essential to the company’s push to take its ATEA VTOL to market faster, and in so doing give France a prominent spot in the emerging AAM sector.
“This fundraising round is critical for sustainable aviation in France,” says Lambert. “It is a logical step forward in our roadmap for the industry’s energy transition. It will accelerate the technical and commercial development of our products while also contributing to our central aim: to build a sustainable model for cleaner air mobility.”
Japan Post is moving quickly with its plans to introduce mail drone delivery services in the country, and has staged its maiden parcel drop to a private home following the company’s first flight over a populated area.
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Drones operating in New York’s Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR) development and research flight corridor are set to increase in girth under a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver that will allow routine testing of larger, heavier UAVs.
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Embraer urban air mobility (UAM) company Eve is moving again to prepare for the launch of future air taxi services by striking a new partnership in vertiport and air traffic management (ATM) system development with a unit of international transport infrastructure group Ferrovial.
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Toronto-based Drone Delivery Canada announced the first sale of its Condor heavy-lift UAV in a deal with the government’s Transport Canada agency.
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California electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) developer Archer Aviation has extended its partnership with longtime investor United Airlines in a deal that will launch air taxi services between downtown Chicago and O’Hare International airport – the second route in a planned US network.
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Swiss drone delivery company Jedsy is small compared to the rapidly scaling sector giants like Zipline, DroneUp, Wing, or Flytrex, but the little UAV that could has developed interesting and unorthodox aerial and docking tech that’s attracting new clients.
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UK-based Global Travel Investments Limited has announced the program for its fourth AIRTAXI World Congress, which this year will be bringing together the main players in advanced air mobility (AAM) craft, infrastructure, tech, and investment activity in San Francisco – home to several leading next-generation electric aircraft developers.
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Leading US drone delivery company DroneUp is partnering with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in a program intended to encourage and assist students pursuing studies and careers in UAV activities.
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Swiss vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone manufacturer Wingtra has raised $22 million in a Series B funding round in an effort to scale what has thus far been successful activities with mapping and surveying customers.
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In an era where bipartisanship in the US Senate is about as improbable (and infrequent) as spinning straw into gold, there seems to be one topic on which politicians are willing to love it up across the aisle – the general threat to national interests posed by China as a whole, and particularly by drones made by sector leader DJI.
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The Biden White House has released a policy report on its priorities for developing new aviation technologies, like electric vertical takeoff and landing planes (eVTOL), autonomous drone services, air taxis, and other forms of advanced air mobility (AAM) to preserve what it says is US leadership in the aeronautical sector, “made possible by American ingenuity and bolstered by the federal government.”
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Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA was an early adopter of drone services when it introduced the craft for automated tracking of inventory in its stores. This month the company added another outlet using that aerial tech to its list, expanding its fleet of label-scanning UAVs to a full 100.
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Swiss drone company Verity, which specializes in UAV operation in automated warehouse management and inventory services, has raised 30 million Swiss francs ($32 million) in a Series B fundraising round largely underwritten by A.P. Moller Holding – the parent company and venture capital arm of shipping giant Maersk, which began using the aerial logistics management solution a few months ago.
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Canadian UAV hardware and software company Draganfly had a busy and productive 2022, and is now building on continued business momentum in the first three months of this year with the announcement it is expanding its drone production capacities to keep pace with surging demand.
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Just two weeks after air taxi developer Autoflight broke a new distance flight record for electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the company inked a deal to provide Singapore air fleet management company EVFLY with over 200 of its passenger planes and cargo drones.
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World-leading instant logistics and drone delivery company Zipline has unveiled a major revision of its commercial transport network, featuring an entirely reconceived transport UAV and an equally autonomous payload droid that – once lowered to client destinations by a winch – can guide itself to an area for unloading as small as a patio table or steps up to a house.
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Aviation experts at NASA are preparing the tools that will be needed for safe and easy navigation of future air taxis and drone services, and to facilitate that work they’ve teamed up with advanced air mobility (AAM) aircraft developer Joby.
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The UK-based UAV delivery specialist Skyports Drone Services has extended its activities in Japan through a successfully completed proof-of-concept trial transporting medical supplies between hospitals and clinics in Kaga City.
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Belgian communications and connectivity specialist Citymesh has announced the launch of what it calls the world’s first nationwide network of public safety drones ready to begin onsite data collection and reconnaissance work as soon as 911 calls come in for police and firefighter help.
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