2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Electric vehicle manufacturer Workhorse has agreed to sell its SureFly electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) program&nbsp;to Moog for $4 million. Workhorse flew a prototype of the two-seat model in 2018&nbsp; and last November signed a cooperative research and development&nbsp;agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense to test SureFly for specific military applications.
The hybrid SureFly is powered by a turbine generator with battery backup and has eight props driven by electric motors. It also has a whole-aircraft ballistic parachute for emergencies. In June 2018, Workhorse said it applied to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration&nbsp;to begin the certification process for the vehicle.
Moog and Workhorse also agreed to form a joint venture to complete development of the latter's&nbsp;HorseFly unmanned aircraft delivery vehicle that is deployed from package vans.&nbsp;Under the proposed purchase agreement with Moog, covered by an October 1 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,Workhorse would retain ownership of the HorseFly technology but the two companies would cooperate to&nbsp;develop and deploy it. The HorseFly multicopter has a maximum takeoff weight of just&nbsp;30 pounds, a 10-pound&nbsp;payload capacity, and a top speed of 50 mph.&nbsp;
Almost 45 percent of Moog's group revenues come from its aircraft controls business. In the U.S. company's latest year-end results, announced on September 28, 2019, the aircraft division accounted for $1.3 billion (9 percent up on 2018) out of total revenues of $2.9 billion (a 7 percent increase).

Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

Workhorse To Sell SureFly eVTOL Program to Moog

Bye Aerospace and Oxis Energy have begun a 12-month collaborative program to develop lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries they believe will allow electric aircraft to fly between 50 to 100 percent longer on a single charge. Development work will involve both ground and flight testing of Oxis’ Li-S batteries on Bye’s existing eFlyer prototype aircraft.
According to UK-based Oxis, its Li-S technology will deliver a two-fold decrease in the weight of batteries due to having a higher gravimetric energy density (in excess of 500 Wh/kg at 20Ah capacity) than lithium-ion batteries. This will result in the increased flight durations possible, it maintains.
In an announcement on November 6, the partners said that Oxis energy cells and modules will be evaluated against the projected performance of both Bye’s existing eFlyer 2 and 4 aircraft, but also new models that the U.S. manufacturer intends to announce “soon.” The <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-08-22/quantum-air-orders-bye-eflyers-la-based-air-taxi-ops">eFlyer aircraft</a> are both fixed-wing,&nbsp;single-motor designs being developed for certification under FAR Part 23 rules.
The development agreement that Oxis has with Bye does not prevent it from working with other aircraft developers. It says that it is already in contact with developers of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and expects to make further announcements “in the coming weeks.”
“Oxis is focusing its research and development on the transformation of piston and turboprop aircraft that is required for regional flight transportation,” commented Oxis CEO Huw Hampson-Jones. “We believe this to be the first phase for the electrification of air taxis, with additional requirements for regional aircraft.”

Bye Aerospace and Battery Developer Oxis Work to Boost Flight Times

The Community Air Mobility Initiative (CAMI) has been formed around the emerging urban air mobility (UAM) industry and will assist in its development, as well as aid cities with the integration of such systems, according to the Seattle-based nonprofit organization. “New technologies and new aircraft promise to make flight accessible and practical on a daily basis for more people than ever before,” said CAMI co-executive director Anna Dietrich. “With that promise comes the responsibility to integrate those aircraft into our communities safely, responsibly, and equitably. We created CAMI as the industry’s commitment to our neighbors and the decision-makers who support them to work to ensure that happens.”
On a conference call with reporters, Dietrich said CAMI’s charge is to work with state and local officials on integrating UAM in their communities through public education and helping to shape policies governing and regulating UAM in local jurisdictions. Dietrich noted there already exists a patchwork of state regulations and laws regarding small UAS.&nbsp;
“This is a fairly time-sensitive project that we’ve undertaken,” she said. “We do need to get ahead of potential issues with awareness and education now while the policies are first being considered. After we have policy and legislation and requirements on the books, it will be much harder to recover from that and change that, as opposed to working with these decision-makers from the beginning.”
Those decision-makers not only include state and local elected officials, but also transportation departments, urban planners, real estate developers, and business owners since UAM involves not just airspace concerns but also infrastructure-related issues such as where to locate landing ports for eVTOLS and how the distribution of those ports would affect various modes of a city’s ground transportation system.&nbsp;
“When we talk about the vision that we have for urban air mobility, we’re asking aviation to intimately integrate into an existing urban transportation system,” Dietrich’s counterpart, CAMI co-executive director Yolanka Wulff, said. “This is no longer a segregated system. It’s an integrated system, and in fact that is what makes urban air mobility both so valuable and interesting, but also challenging.”
Early backers of CAMI include trade groups such as NBAA, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and the Vertical Flight Society; OEMs Bell and Raytheon; and fledgling eVTOL manufacturers Karem Aircraft, Joby Aviation, and Jump Aero. CAMI has a total of 13 founding member companies and organizations.

Community Air Mobility Initiative Formed To Shape Urban Air Mobility Policy

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer EHang filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 31 to prepare the way for an anticipated $100 million initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq. The China-based group made an SEC F1 filing for the Cayman Islands-registered EHang Holdings Limited, giving notice of its intention to offer Class A ordinary shares from an as-yet unspecified date before the end of 2019 and secure a Nasdaq listing under the symbol EH. The IPO would make EHang the first of numerous privately owned eVTOL startups to go public.
One factor that sets it apart from other companies vying to get ahead in a crowded sector that reportedly includes up to 200 new aircraft developments is that EHang has already started to make deliveries of its two-seat 216 Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (AAVs). According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1759783/000119312519280594/d515413df1.htm">the F1 filing</a>, it has delivered 38 AAVs since March 2018 to various partners and prospective distributors, including freight group DHL-Sinotrans. It reported “unfulfilled orders” for 28 aircraft.
With the approval of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), EHang earlier this year began some demonstration flights in its home city of Guangzhou and various other locations in China. In February, it filed an application with CAAC for operations in support of a customer’s logistics business under the Pilot Operations Rules (Interim) for Specific Unmanned Aircraft. The company said it is hopeful of getting this approval before year-end.
In the SEC filing, EHang indicates that for now its main focus is on the Chinese market. It acknowledged that the regulatory environment for autonomous aircraft operations in the U.S. and Europe remains more complex for now.
During the first six months of 2019, EHang reported a net loss of $5.5 million, which was 42 percent higher than the loss it incurred in the same period for 2018. Revenues for the first six months of 2019 were also down by 15.6 percent at $4.7 million. The company, which was formed in December 2014, already markets a family of consumer drones and also operates drones in public displays for marketing purposes.
During 2017, EHang subsidiaries in Germany and the U.S. filed for bankruptcy and these cases are still being resolved. The company indicated that these companies traded as sales organizations for consumer drones before it decided to withdraw from the market in those countries.

eVTOL Startup EHang Prepares for Nasdaq Share Offering

On October 31, EHang filed an F1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to prepare its planned Initial Public Offering (IPO) before the end of 2019.&nbsp;The company is aiming to raise $100 million from the IPO.
The China-based group's published prospectus provides a fascinating insight into its prospects for fulfilling its ambitions to be one of the early leaders in bringing autonomous&nbsp;electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft into commercial service. To meet the SEC's transparency requirements, EHang has had to spell out risk factors associated with its business plan, and this exercise runs to 36 pages of detailed analysis of multiple risk factors. Many of these risks, such as uncertainty about the regulatory process and public acceptance of autonomous flight, would apply to any of EHang's rivals. Others are more specific to EHang's base in the People's Republic of China and the potential it to fall foul of the country's complex corporate legal requirements, such as the new Foreign Investment Law, which takes effect January 1, 2020. EHang Holdings Limited was established in December 2014 as a Cayman Islands-based offshore holding company specifically to facilitate offshore financing and listing.&nbsp;
In some respects, EHang's base in China is both a potential blessing and a curse. For instance, its close relationship with Chinese authorities has presented an opportunity for it to fast-track development work.&nbsp;
With the approval of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), EHang earlier this year began some demonstration flights in its home city of Guangzhou and various other locations in China. In February, it filed an application with CAAC for operations in support of a customer’s logistics business under the Pilot Operations Rules (Interim) for Specific Unmanned Aircraft. The company said it is hopeful of getting this approval before year-end. In the SEC filing, EHang indicates that for now its main focus is on the Chinese market. It acknowledged that the regulatory environment for autonomous aircraft operations in the U.S. and Europe remains more complex for now. At the same time, it recognizes that Chinese legal requirements could complicate its status as an international public company.
The SEC filing also flags up the reality that the path to profitability in the urban air mobility market will require deep pockets, and it remains to be seen <a href="https://cncms.aero/node/292">whether EHang's are sufficiently deep</a>.&nbsp;
&nbsp;

EHang's SEC Filing for Nasdaq IPO Sheds Light on Risks Facing eVTOL Pioneers

With the green agenda rising in the UK's 2019 general election campaign, the UK Labour Party has indicated it would consider a ban on fossil-fuel powered private aircraft flights from 2025. The November 4 statement by shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald was in response to a new report calling for electric-only private aircraft flights published by environmental and economic pressure groups Fellow Travellers and Commonwealth.&nbsp;
The report, titled "<a href="s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.afreeride.org/documents/Jet+Set+Go+Summary.pdf">jet, set, go</a>" claims that a passenger in a private jet today emits seven times as much greenhouse gas as a business class passenger&nbsp;on an airline flight. The reported differential rises to 10 times compared with an economy class airline passenger and 150 times compared with a train passenger. According to the authors, there were 128,000 private jet flights between UK airports and the rest of Europe in 2018—representing 6 percent of total traffic—plus another 14,000 flights from the UK to points beyond Europe.
According to the authors, four out of five private aircraft journeys within Europe today could be conducted by electric aircraft from 2025. That said, they acknowledge that even if electric aircraft were widely adopted this move has the potential to reduce the UK's aviation emissions of greenhouse gases by around only 15 percent by 2050.

FutureFlight

Latest

Workhorse To Sell SureFly eVTOL Program to Moog

Moog is paying $4 million to take on Workhorse's SureFly eVTOL program.

Bye Aerospace and Battery Developer Oxis Work to Boost Flight Times

Oxis says its lithium-sulfur batteries will support a 50 to 100 percent increase in how long electric aircraft can fly.

Community Air Mobility Initiative Formed To Shape Urban Air Mobility Policy

The Community Air Mobility Initiative aims to work directly with local and state officials as well as focus on public education.

eVTOL Startup EHang Prepares for Nasdaq Share Offering

EHang is seeking to raise $100 million from a Nasdaq IPO to support its eVTOL aircraft programs

More Articles

EHang's SEC Filing for Nasdaq IPO Sheds Light on Risks Facing eVTOL Pioneers

EHang is the first eVTOL start up company to go public with an IPO on Wall Street

UK Labour Party Considers Demand for Electric-only Private AIrcraft Flights

A report by UK environmental groups Fellow Travellers and Commonwealth called for a ban on private jets from 2025.

AIN Products

Newsletters

Membership

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN