ZeroAvia plans to replace the turboprop engines on two Dornier 228 regional airliners with a pair of its 600-kW electric powertrain units and hydrogen fuel tanks that will eventually hold 100 kg of compressed gaseous hydrogen to support a projected range of 500 miles. The company also has secured additional funding to support work on a 50-plus-seat aircraft.

Blade Air Mobility's provisional agreement with Eve Urban Mobility Solutions is the latest in a series of deals with eVTOL aircraft developers, also including Beta Technologies and Wisk. Eve has committed to supporting up to 60,000 flight hours by supplying as many as 60 aircraft to as-yet-unnamed operators in South Florida and on the U.S. West Coast.

Hyundai Motor Group's Urban Air Mobility Division is to work with drone operations and traffic management specialist Anra Technologies to develop the operating environment for planned eVTOL aircraft services. Anra specializes in unmanned air traffic management technology and drone operations.

Under a memorandum of understanding, France-based training group Airways Aviation is to receive an unspecified number of VoltAero's Cassio hybrid-electric aircraft. The company plans to launch what it referred to as air taxi operations in the south of France and will also provide flight training.

Collins Aerospace says that its new electric motor design is scalable from a power rating of around 100 kW to almost 1 MW. As such, the company believes it is suitable for applications ranging from smaller eVTOL aircraft to conversions of existing fixed-wing turboprop aircraft. Flight testing of the propulsion system on the Airlander 10 airship is due to start in 2023.

Dufour Aerospace has agreed that AirMobility will market and distribute its Aero 3 hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft in Japan. The agreement includes terms that could see the Tokyo-based company buy an unspecified number of the five- to seven-seat model, for which no projected service entry and certification date has yet been published.

At a factory in Texas, Qarbon Aerospace will integrate and assemble Hexa aerostructures made by its facility in Thailand. Initially, Lift Aircraft is bringing the personal air vehicle to market under the FAA's Powered Ultralight rules.

A new wave of aircraft is heading to the air transportation market, using new propulsion systems, many of them are based on electric power and advances in flight control technology. The companies behind what is being called advanced air mobility say they can transform the way people and things move around. The operating models proposed can seem quite complex so FutureFlight asked independent expert Darrell Swanson to do a bit of acronym busting for us and explain what eVTOL, eSTOL, and eCTOL aircraft will deliver when they start appearing in our communities two or three years from now.

Aerodyne's plans to develop the Vector eVTOL aircraft appear to have gone onto the back-burner during 2020, with the Malaysian company now largely focused on drone manufacturing and autonomous flight technology. It remains to be seen whether the design unveiled in 2019 will reappear.