Textron Aviation and Merlin this week unveiled a concept for an autonomous cargo airplane based on the Cessna SkyCourier, proposing to replace the cockpit with a nose cargo door and hand flying duties to Merlin’s autonomy software. The companies have produced a design study of what they are calling the Cessna SkyCourier UX and displayed a model at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on September 14.

Electra has reached agreement for the Atlas to manufacture and assemble airframes for early examples of its EL9 Ultra Short hybrid-electric aircraft. Under a partnership announced on Tuesday, the companies said work will begin this month at Atlas' facilities in Wichita with the first prototypes of the nine-seater to be delivered in 2027, when flight testing is due to begin.

Swarm Aero has unveiled its contender for the U.S. Air Force’s Massed Modular Aircraft requirement for a new-generation, large, long-range uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). At the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference on Monday, the start-up introduced the Gamera drone, which it claims will deliver a tenfold reduction in cost per effect than current platforms such as the General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper.

Honeywell Aerospace and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) have completed a flight test of a quantum-sensor-based navigation system. Flying under DIU’s MagNav magnetic navigation program, Honeywell’s Embraer 170 test airplane made a round trip from Everett Paine Field (KPAE) north of Seattle to the Gulf of Alaska. Without using satellites, the quantum-sensor system delivered position accuracy 89% better than conventional backup navigation would have achieved, DIU said. 

Amprius Technologies plans to begin selling a 500 Wh/kg silicon-anode battery cell in the fourth quarter of this year, the first time the company has offered its highest energy density on a cell that outside factories can build with standard lithium-ion equipment. The second-generation SiCore cell delivers 500 Wh/kg at a 1C continuous discharge rate, Fremont, California-based Amprius said on September 2.

Bye Aerospace is a step closer to the first flight of its electric eFlyer 2 training airplane, having received a special airworthiness certificate from the FAA. Special airworthiness certificates are issued to enable flight testing of aircraft before they qualify for a standard airworthiness certificate. The Bye Aerospace certificate was issued under the experimental category, designated for research and development.

Joby Aviation began a week of electric air taxi demonstration flights across the Dallas-Fort Worth area on September 10, the first flights in Texas under the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program. The schedule takes the aircraft into controlled airspace at Dallas-Fort Worth International, over the Fort Worth Stockyards to Arlington, and out to Toyota’s campus in Plano.