Graham Warwick Fuel cells for aircraft power; Blade UAM expands; Volocopter Paris flight; Vertiport partnerships; and Japan SAF flights.
Graham Warwick
Liebherr will use GM’s Hydrotec fuel-cell power cube. Credit: General Motors
Liebherr-Aerospace has teamed with General Motors (GM) to demonstrate a hydrogen fuel-cell-based electrical power-generation system for aircraft. The demonstrator will be based on GM’s Hydrotec fuel-cell technology for electric vehicles.
Liebherr and GM agreed in 2018 to cooperate on fuel-cell technology. The integrated demonstrator, customized to the performance and economic requirements of commercial aircraft, will be tested in 2022 in Liebherr’s system-integration laboratory in Toulouse.
The demonstrator will incorporate GM’s fuel-cell-based Hydrotec power cube along with its controls and models. GM has previously agreed to supply Hydrotec systems to heavy truck-makers. In these applications, the power cube contains more than 300 fuel cells and produces 80 kW of electrical power.
Liebherr has been working with zero-emission fuel cells since the mid-2000s, targeting auxiliary and emergency power units. In 2008, Airbus flight-tested a fuel-cell system that generated 20 kW to power the electric motor pump on the backup hydraulic circuit and operated the aircraft’s ailerons. The system was developed jointly with Michelin, Liebherr and German aerospace center DLR.
“We have built a proof of concept to check the relevance of applying this technology to aerospace applications, which showed us that this technology is adapted to aerospace applications,” says Nicolas Bonleux, managing director and chief commercial officer of Liebherr-Aerospace and Transportation. “This proof of concept helped us determine which partner was the best suited for the next steps.”
Airbus is studying the potential of developing a zero-emission, hydrogen-fueled airliner for entry into service by 2035. So far, the manufacturer has launched a fuel-cell partnership with Germany’s ElringKlinger; set up centers in Bremen, Germany, and Nantes, France, to develop metallic cryogenic hydrogen tanks; and signed a memorandum of understanding with Air Liquide and Groupe ADP to prepare French airports for the arrival of hydrogen-fueled aircraft.
Blade Urban Air Mobility is adding to the fleet of electric air taxis it will be able to call on to provide its on-demand transportation service in U.S. cities. Embraer subsidiary Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions has agreed to supply Blade with 60,000 flight hours a year of service in Southern California and on the West Coast beginning in 2026.
Under the conditional agreement, Eve will deploy up to 60 of its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft with local operating partners for Blade’s use. The aircraft will be owned by Eve and other third parties, and Blade will pay for flight time used. This is the model Blade uses for its current on-demand helicopter services in New York and Miami.
Blade struck a deal in April with Beta Technologies to secure delivery of up to 20 Alia eVTOL air taxis. The aircraft are to be purchased by operator Jet Linx Aviation, supported by equity capital from RedBird Capital Partners—which is an investor in both Beta and Blade. Jet Linx plans to begin eVTOL flights in the U.S. Northeast in 2025, with Blade providing a minimum flight-hour guarantee.
Eve will work with local operators to provide eVTOLs for Blade. Credit: Eve Urban Air Mobility
In May, Boeing/Kitty Hawk joint venture Wisk agreed to provide Blade with up to 30 autonomous eVTOL aircraft for short-range routes in the U.S. Wisk will own the aircraft and operate them for Blade in return for hourly fees and a minimum flight-hour guarantee. Services are planned to begin once Wisk’s sixth-generation self-flying air taxi has been certified by the FAA.
Eve has already announced a conditional order for 200 eVTOLs from Halo Aviation, a UK and U.S. helicopter operator owned by Kenn Ricci’s Directional Aviation investment fund. Of the aircraft on order, 100 are planned to be deployed in the U.S. beginning in 2026. Halo is the combination of U.S. operator Associated Aircraft Group and the UK’s Halo Aviation, which were acquired by Directional.
Eve was spun out of the EmbraerX market accelerator in October 2020, and Brazilian manufacturer Embraer has confirmed that its urban air mobility (UAM) subsidiary is in negotiations to go public through a merger with Zanite Acquisition, a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, led by Ricci that is targeting urban mobility and other emerging aviation markets.
In a first step toward urban air mobility demonstrations planned for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Volocopter conducted a remotely controlled flight of its 2X prototype at Le Bourget Airport during the online Paris Air Forum on June 21.
In the 3-min. flight—the first in France by an eVTOL vehicle—the two-seat multicopter flew a 500-m (1,600-ft.) route along the airfield at a 30-m altitude and speeds up to 30 kph (19 mph).
Volocopter is a vehicle and operations partner for the Re.Invent Air Mobility initiative launched in 2020 by the Paris Region, airport operator Groupe ADP and public transport operator RATP Group. The goal is to showcase electric air taxis at the 2024 Olympics. Airbus, Ascendance Flight Technologies, EHang, Pipistrel and Vertical Aerospace are also vehicle partners.
The flight at Le Bourget was the first in a multistep test and market development campaign in cooperation with French civil aviation authority DGAC to bring electric air taxis to the region. The next step is to begin a first flight-test campaign by September at the UAM “sandbox” established at ADP’s Pontoise-Cormeilles Aerodrome on the outskirts of Paris.
Infrastructure alliances are forming as the launch of advanced air mobility draws nearer. Flights can begin using existing helipads and airports, but dedicated vertiports will be needed to bring services closer to customers.
Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions has extended its partnership with UK vertiport developer Skyports to Asia and the Americas, after working together in Australia and the UK. The companies will develop a concept of operations (conops) for UAM to inform operational procedures as well as vehicle and services development.
Skyports will contribute to a market readiness exercise and a vehicle conops study in Brazil, where Eve is working with helicopter operator Helisul Aviation to develop an ecosystem for aerial ride-sharing. The companies have previously collaborated with Airservices Australia to develop a UAM conops for Melbourne and are working with the UK Civil Aviation Authority to develop a conops for London.
The UK vertiport developer is already teamed with Volocopter to develop the VoloPort, targeting the launch of operations in Singapore in 2023. Skyports will also develop a full-scale vertiport testbed at Pontoise, outside Paris, under the Re.Invent Mobility initiative to showcase UAM at the 2024 Olympics.
Skyports’ partnerships include developing vertiports in Ireland and Singapore. Credit: Skyports
Skyports is working with local partners to launch an operational vertiport in Shannon, Ireland, in 2022 and has partnered with Hanwha Systems to commercialize UAM in South Korea beginning in 2025. The UK company also plans to have an operational facility for passenger eVTOL aircraft in place in Japan’s Osaka Prefecture in time for the Osaka-Kansai World Expo in 2025.
Other eVTOL and vertiport developers are forming alliances. Lilium has partnered with Spanish infrastructure developer Ferrovial to build out a regional air mobility network in Florida. Ferrovial will develop, own and operate the vertiports and receive landing fees from Lilium once services begin in 2025.
Joby Aviation has linked with U.S. parking-garage operator Reef Technology to lease rooftops as sites for urban vertiports. And South Korean automaker Hyundai has selected UK startup Urban-Air Port as its UAM infrastructure partner, with the first demonstration vertiport scheduled to begin drone operations this year in Coventry, England.
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have conducted demonstration flights with aircraft using different blends of sustainable aviation fuel produced in Japan. Both airlines have committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and Japan aims to commercialize domestically produced sustainable fuels by 2030.
On June 17, an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 787-8 flew a scheduled flight between Tokyo Haneda and Osaka Itami airports using a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from microalgae blended with conventional jet fuel.
On the same day, a Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 flew from Tokyo Haneda to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport with a 9.1% blend using two different types of domestically produced SAF, one made from microalgae and one from wood chips.
JAL conducted the first demo flight that used two different SAF blends. Credit: Japan Airlines
The fuel derived from the Botryococcus braunii microalgae was produced by IHI and was approved for use in aircraft in May 2020 as Annex 7 to ASTM International’s D7566 synthetic fuel standard. Annex 7 defines a synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) made from hydrocarbon-hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids that may be blended up to 10% with conventional jet fuel.
The wood-derived SAF was produced by Mitsubishi Power, Toyo Engineering and JERA using a Velocys Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor at a demonstration plant in Nagoya. The fuel produced meets the ASTM D7556 Annex 1 specification for FT-SPK SAF and is approved for use in blends up to 50%.
The ANA flight was the first to use SAF certified to Annex 7. The JAL flight was the first to use two SAFs simultaneously and the first to use fuel produced from gasified wood chips.
Both flights were conducted in partnership with Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a project led by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau and government agencies to establish domestic supply chains for the production of SAF.
