optimism d'jour ...

[rb1957]

from Flight ...

"Airbus research head sees no ‘show-stoppers’ yet in hydrogen push" ... yeah, certification, it'll be a doddle ...

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[jaceb]

it proves not only his limitless optimism but also lack of imagination. I would say he didn't see showstoppers it may be understood as an invitation for another A380 style adventure - money does not count for us (EU will pay) only important factor is fun... Probably you remember transparent nanomaterial fuselages pushed by his predecessor - probably he doesn't noticed any show-stoppers for this ideas as well...

 

[SWComposites]

he's just protecting his research budget from the corporate bean counters .....

 

[rb1957]

and today, from Flight ...

"Vertical delays VX4 certification until 2026 and predicts industry-wide ‘timeline correction’

Vertical Aerospace has pushed back the expected certification date of its VX4 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft by around one year until the end of 2026 following an internal review of the process."

they're still dreaming. No one knows where the rabbit hole of certifying electrically powered planes leads. My bet is China, after a very circuitous path trying to avoid the molten core, only to finally commit to tunneling through that too.

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[rb1957]

from Flight ...
"Joby reports Q1 loss, will issue $180m in stock to long-term investor.
Electric air taxi start-up Joby Aviation has entered an agreement to issue $180 million of common stock to long-term Joby investor Baillie Gifford, providing a cash infusion as the company pushes to certify its aircraft.

”This offering, which is expected to close on May 5, will further bolster our balance sheet and support our operations, including future investments in capacity to accelerate production,” the California-based start-up said during its 3 May quarterly earnings call.
[highlight #FCE94F]Joby aims to have a viable air taxi in service by 2023.[/highlight]
Joby lost $113.4 million during the first quarter of 2023, compared with a $62.3 million loss during the same period last year.
The electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer reported losing $99.7 million from its operations, [highlight #FCE94F]$17.2 million from “stock-based compensation expense”[/highlight] and $7 million in depreciation and amortisation during the first three months of 2023.

”The higher net loss compared with 2022 primarily reflected lower other income of $45.7 million and higher operating expenses of $5.4 million,” the company says.

“Prior to this investment, we felt really good about our cash position and our ability to forward invest to get ourselves to and through certification,” he says.

”In light of what we think is a growing opportunity to deliver aircraft and potentially generate revenue with the DoD, we felt it prudent to add to our already-strong balance sheet through this investment,” Sciarra adds. ”This gives us an opportunity to scale pilot production sooner, build more aircraft and deliver those to our first set of customers, and to do that without sacrificing the revenue we need” to get through type certification with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Joby is close to entering the fourth stage of FAA certification, during which the start-up will design and test-run its certification programme with the FAA.

"a viable (electric) air taxi service in 2023" ... No one knows what's involved in certifying electric powered planes, including me, but whatever it is it won't get done in 8 months.

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[WKTaylor]

Version 2.0 of the FAA’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Concept of Operations (ConOps), an update to the original 2020 document, brought together FAA and NASA industry partners to provide an industry roadmap for emerging aviation systems. It describes a “crawl-then-walk” approach to enable increasingly more frequent and complex operations via UAM “corridors” akin to highways in the sky.

While the blueprint won’t hold any legal weight, it will serve as a framework for policymakers moving forward.

https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Concept of Operations 2.0_0.pdf

Regards, Wil Taylor
o Trust - But Verify!
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation, Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", HBA forum]
o Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand everything." -Anton Chekhov

 

[SWComposites]

rb - Joby is well funded, has a very good team, and is realistic on certification requirements. They are one of the few companies that have a reasonable chance of pulling off certification. I don't know about the quote above, but I'm pretty sure they are not aiming for FAA certification in 2023.

This is interesting if you haven't seen it:

https://aamrealityindex.com/aam-reality-index

The whole ConOps issue is where things will be REALLY interesting.

 

[rb1957]

ok, the ConOps talks to the operation of the service, not the certification of the electric power. Other people, with working planes like HabourAir, can only shrug their shoulders about when they'll be approved.

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.