Surf Air Mobility is no longer acquiring Ampaire, as announced by the companies last year. Instead, Ampaire will soon pursue a Series B funding round to increase available capital to support its efforts to convert the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft to hybrid-electric power. It recently conducted the first ground tests with the new integrated propulsion system.

LCI is one of several aircraft leasing groups planning to invest in new eVTOL vehicles like the five-passenger Alia 250 being developed by Beta Technologies. The Ireland-based group has now placed deposit-backed orders for an initial 50 units and has options for another 75.

In a move that appears to have been instigated by Archer's board of directors, the eVTOL aircraft pioneer's co-founder, Brett Adcock, is stepping down as co-CEO, leaving Adam Goldstein in overall command of the start-up. The company says it will be prepared to start commercial air taxi services in 2024 but will not have a production-conforming version of its four-passenger vehicle ready to fly until 2023.

Europe's air safety regulator, EASA, has said it will concurrently validate the anticipated UK Civil Aviation Authority type certificate for Vertical's VX4 eVTOL model. The company expects to receive its Design Organization Approval later this year and start flight testing a full-scale prototype.

Safran makes turbofan and turboshaft engines for established fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, but now the France-based company is betting big on the propulsion needs of new electric aircraft. Its growing list of partners in the advanced air mobility sector includes Aura Aero, VoltAero, and Bye Aerospace.

Infrastructure specialist Urban-Air Port partnered with eVTOL aircraft developer Supernal to display the Air-One concept for a multimodal transportation hub that could integrate eVTOL aircraft and drones into cities. The concept was unveiled this week at Coventry in the UK and will start a tour of other international cities later in 2022.

Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico County Airport has established an Autonomous Innovation Center and is looking to attract companies developing and operating uncrewed air vehicles. The airport's management says that its ability to designate local airspace for specific use by UAVs gives it a distinct advantage that could result in current piloted aircraft being replaced by autonomous operations.

Most aircraft makers brag about the first flights of their prototypes like self-absorbed first-time parents with their baby photos. Volocopter can’t be accused of any such narcissism. When its VoloCity eVTOL aircraft kicked off flight testing with a short hover from the company’s Bruschal headquarters on Dec. 22, 2021, it somewhat grudgingly acknowledged this happening without elaboration. Then on April 13, it released a two-minute video providing a progress report on the program that peaked with a tantalizingly short glimpse of the flight itself. The prototype has been used for further flight trials since then but Volocopter has declined to provide any details on progress so far, beyond reporting that it has already logged more than 1,500 flight tests with the 2X aircraft. 

The in-design ES-19 is a 19-seat, zero-emissions regional airliner powered by four electric engines.