Mark Huber

Some emerging advanced air mobility companies continue to face significant financial headwinds as witnessed by the decidedly cool market reaction to Surf Air Mobility’s direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange late on July 27. Ahead of the initial public offering, Surf Air merged with Southern Airways Express, which operates a fleet of turbine-powered Cessna Caravans mainly under FAA Essential Air Service contracts. Working with partners including MagniX and AeroTec, the company intends to convert existing aircraft to use electric propulsion systems.

One of Bell’s Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) experimental cargo drones crashed March 14 in a field near Mineral Wells, Texas, in what is being categorized as a “loss of control” accident by the FAA. 

As the advanced air mobility sector works on plans for digital flight operations and air traffic management, it should learn lessons from the chaotic implementation of 5G C-band communications, says the aeronautics standards organization RTCA. The new communications technology has caused interference with aircraft avionics systems, resulting in disruption to commercial flights.

According to Volatus Infrastructure, Penn State University sports fans could be among the first passengers to use eVTOL aircraft via a new vertiport at Bellefonte Airport in Pennsylvania. The company says the facility could also be used for flights to other destinations on the U.S. East coast.

Australian company Electro is focusing intently on what it will take to make the process for recharging electric aircraft viable. According to its chief technology officer Josh Portlock, the infrastructure and processes will need to be standardized to ensure a rapid throughput of vehicles at vertiports.

Bell has brought its Autonomous Pod Transport eVTOL this week to the 2022 Air Medical Transport Conference in Tampa, Florida. The company has been flying the aircraft for several years and aims for a production version that will deliver 100 pounds, 100 miles, at 100 knots per hour.

Innovators like Xwing are focusing on air freight services to gain regulators' approval for flights controlled by ground-based operators rather than pilots on board. Earl Lawrence, the FAA's former executive director of aircraft certification and now Xwing's chief compliance and quality officer, told the recent Electric Aircraft Symposium that passengers are a long way from being ready to accept autonomous operations.

In its high-density vertiplex project, NASA engineers and pilots have employed simulations and live flight trials in their efforts to mature automation technology. Using the agency's Langley and Ames facilities, the research team has developed a prototype urban air mobility ecosystem covering aircraft operations, airspace, and fleet management.

Experts gathered at the Vertical Flight Society's recent Electric Aircraft Symposium pointed to numerous roadblocks to putting the proper infrastructure in place for advanced air mobility, such as raising sufficient capital, finding acceptable locations, and completing the appropriate studies.