2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Charles Alcock

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News and issues concerning the aviation charter and fractional-ownership industries and markets, including company announcements, regulations, new developments and labor issues.

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia have all made commitments to manufacturers of new electric aircraft

Gulf States Seek Early Launch of eVTOL Air Services

Issues regarding financing of aircraft; aviation insurance; tax issues for aircraft operators; new companies and people in the aviation financing and insurance industries.

Key milestones set for 2024 and 2025 now appear to be in doubt

Finish Line Still Eludes Advanced Air Mobility Rush

Lilium's CFO Oliver Vogelgesang is moving to Volocopter

Volocopter Reshuffles Leadership as eVTOL Certification Slips into 2025

Straight talk about an industry that is making a lot of promises

Cutting Through the eVTOL Aircraft Hype With Independent Expert Sergio Cecutta

eVTOL companies are trying to instigate their own revolution

Volocopter Flies its eVTOL Aircraft During the Paris Olympics at Versailles

The German company had hoped to demonstrate its two-seat vehicle in the center of Paris 

Volocopter's Versailles eVTOL Flight Is a Step Towards Service Entry

Flights from Saint-Cyr-l’École airfield will help develop air taxi routes in the French capital 

Volocopter Flies eVTOL Aircraft Validation Mission in Paris

The company will not disclose which of its existing investors have committed to provide new funding

Volocopter Says It Has Funding To Complete Certification of eVTOL Aircraft

Germany's LBA civil aviation authority this week extended Volocopter’s production organization approval (POA), clearing the way for the company to start serial manufacturing of its two-seat VoloCity eVTOL aircraft. The approval announced on Thursday covers two new Volocopter production and hangar facilities at Bruchsal in Germany that the company built in 2023.
The company is busy working towards its objective of achieving EASA type certification for the aircraft this summer, which would make the VoloCity the first eVTOL model to achieve this approval in Europe. Volocopter and partners aim to be ready to operate some commercial <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-06-27/first-fare-paying-evtol-passenger-flights-could-happen-paris-during-2024">passenger-carrying flights in Paris </a>when the French capital hosts the 2024 Olympic Games, which begin on July 29. 
In case full type certification cannot be achieved in time for that event, Volocopter is working with EASA, the French DGAC air safety agency, and airports group ADP to secure a permit to fly on a limited basis during the Olympics.
More progress was achieved this week, when on Friday the LBA gave clearance for its Volocopter Air Services subsidiary to be an approved training organization with the authority to train eVTOL pilots. Over the past year, the German authorities have been auditing the company to ensure that its training equipment and materials meet the required standards and are available to deliver the required training for the new pilot license.
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<figcaption>Volocopter is now approved by the German aviation safety agency to train eVTOL aircraft pilots. (Image: Volocopter)</figcaption>
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Volocopter secured an EASA design organization approval back in 2019, and this was followed by the initial POA in 2021 when the company acquired aircraft manufacturer DG Flugzeugbau. According to Volocopter, the extended POA is the first of its type in the industry, specifically giving the go-ahead to move from prototyping to what is effectively a preliminary phase of serial manufacturing of its eVTOL design.
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“This is a major milestone for us,” commented Volocopter’s chief operating officer Andreas Fehring. “Aircraft design and production are strongly regulated for a good reason: to produce safe mobility products. I am pleased that Volocopter’s production facility has the trust and stamp of approval from LBA to manufacture commercial aircraft that can be safely delivered to customers once the VoloCity receives type certification. Our team has proven that we can produce safe and high-quality test aircraft, and we now look forward to shortening our production lead time for scaling.”
The approval sequence being taken by European aviation regulators would appear to contrast with that recently seen in China. Last October, EHang received a type certificate for its two-seat <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-11-23/ehang-progresses-its-long-march-air-mobility-leadership">EH216-S eVTOL aircraft</a>&nbsp;from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, but more than four months later the company is still in the process of securing full series production approval.
In the U.S., Joby Aviation has been manufacturing production-conforming prototypes of its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft since June 2023. In February, Joby announced it has <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2024-02-22/joby-completes-third-five-stages-faa-type-certification-its-evtol-aircraft">completed the third of five stages</a> required for the FAA type certification process it aims to complete by the end of this year.

Managing Editor

Volocopter Gets Clearance to Start Early Serial Production of VoloCity eVTOL Aircraft

German eVTOL developer <a href="https://futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-10-29/volocopter-makes-case-evtol-air-services-roadshow-us-market">Volocopter</a> has jumped to the number-one ranking on SMG Consulting’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Reality Index, overtaking long-time front-runner <a href="https://futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-10-04/jobys-evtol-aircraft-makes-first-flights-pilots-board">Joby Aviation</a>, which is now tied with EHang and Beta Technologies in second place.
With countless aerospace start-ups vying for attention in the nascent AAM industry, the <a href="https://advancedairmobilityrealityinde.godaddysites.com/aam-reality-index">AAM Reality Index</a> aims to quantify the likelihood that a manufacturer will succeed in certifying its aircraft, putting it into service, and mass-producing it at a rate of thousands of units per year, according to SMG. The assessment tool calculates rankings on a scale of zero to 10 based on a variety of factors, including funding, certification progress, and production readiness. Those rankings are updated every couple of months, and SMG released its latest update on November 8.&nbsp;&nbsp;
“Major changes are coming to the AAM Reality Index November 2023 release due to the addition of almost 40 percent new milestones for the funding, technology readiness, and production readiness parameters,” SMG co-founder and president Sergio Cecutta <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sergiocecutta_advanced-air-mobility-reality-index-november-activity-7128082117984452610-xUb2">wrote</a> on LinkedIn. “We think this added detail allows us to capture the differences between OEMs' progress much more accurately.”
The November 2023 update to the AAM Reality Index includes additional milestones to “take into account the differences in funding needed to scale up production,” according to SMG. It now distinguishes between subscale and full-scale technology demonstrators and prototypes. In determining a company’s production readiness, it also now distinguishes between low-rate initial production and mass-production capabilities.&nbsp;
Production readiness appears to be the main factor contributing to Volocopter’s leap to the top with a score of 8.3, as it&nbsp;is the only eVTOL developer to have secured a <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2019-12-09/easa-grants-first-design-organization-approval-evtol-developer-volocopter">production certificate</a>. Although EHang recently became the first company to obtain a <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-10-13/china-issues-worlds-first-evtol-aircraft-type-certificate-ehangs-eh216-s">type certificate</a> for commercial eVTOL operations, it has still not obtained its production certificate.&nbsp;
Trailing closely behind Volocopter are EHang, Joby, and <a href="https://futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-10-26/betas-electric-airplane-lands-air-force-base-florida">Beta</a>, which tied for second place with index scores of 8.0.&nbsp;<a href="https://futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-10-25/archers-midnight-evtol-prototype-aircraft-makes-first-flight">Archer Aviation</a> takes third place with a score of 7.9, a slight drop from the 8.1 rating it received in August. Boeing-backed autonomous eVTOL developer <a href="https://futureflight.aero/news-article/2023-10-20/wisk-reports-generation-6-autonomous-evtol-aircraft-track-flight-testing">Wisk Aero</a> takes fourth place, with its index score dropping to 7.4 from 7.8. Wisk’s reduced score stems from its technology readiness, as the company has yet to begin flight testing with a full-scale prototype and is still flying with a subscale technology demonstrator. Eve Air Mobility and Vertical&nbsp;Aerospace take fifth and sixth place with rankings of 7.2 and 7.1, respectively.
The November release of the AAM Reality Index ranks 28 companies, and those rankings are publicly <a href="https://advancedairmobilityrealityinde.godaddysites.com/aam-reality-index">available online</a>.&nbsp;

Volocopter

News

Gulf States Seek Early Launch of eVTOL Air Services

Finish Line Still Eludes Advanced Air Mobility Rush

Volocopter Reshuffles Leadership as eVTOL Certification Slips into 2025

Cutting Through the eVTOL Aircraft Hype With Independent Expert Sergio Cecutta

Volocopter Flies its eVTOL Aircraft During the Paris Olympics at Versailles

Volocopter's Versailles eVTOL Flight Is a Step Towards Service Entry

Volocopter Flies eVTOL Aircraft Validation Mission in Paris

Volocopter Says It Has Funding To Complete Certification of eVTOL Aircraft

Volocopter Gets Clearance to Start Early Serial Production of VoloCity eVTOL Aircraft

Volocopter Takes the Lead in Updated AAM Reality Index

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