Every once in a while, an aircraft design comes along that just looks great and feels right. In the case of the Ascendance Flight Technologies ATEA concept, the 8-fan hybrid design may just fit that sensibility.
Founded in 2018 by four former graduates of France’s top aerospace and business schools and with backgrounds in Airbus’s eFAN technology project, the company also boasts Board members from the likes of Renault and Safran.
With over two hundred eVTOL designs now in development worldwide, it seems obvious that not all will emerge past concept stage, never mind get past certification and be brought successfully to market.
Although not yet a fully electric design and with it 100% zero emissions, (ATEA is suggesting 80% reduction in carbon emissions initially), Ascendance Flight Technologies bring a very credible technological pedigree with a heavyweight board presence to steady the ship in what is likely be a very turbulent eVTOL marketplace.
With all the raging hype about eVTOLs and focus on zero CO2 emissions in aviation, a small start-up in Gloucestershire Airport called Electro Flight (and a rather large aircraft engine manufacturer based in Derby) along with an electric motor manufacturer called YASA – now owned by Mercedes) quietly set about using battery propulsion to break the world speed record for electric aircraft. Not only did they break the record, they smashed it – beating the previous record by an astonishing 132 mph.
Using a modified Nemesis NXT kit aircraft, the Rolls-Royce ACCEL reached a speed of 345 mph (556 kmh) for the required 3 kilometers (under the FAI World Air Sports Federation rules) during its total flight time of around 15 minutes on 16 November 2021. ACCEL took a mere 202 seconds to climb to 3,000 meters (another record) and at one point, actually reached a top speed of 387 mph (623 km/h).
Under normal conditions, the aircraft has enough power to fly the aircraft from London to Paris on a single charge. With 6,480 battery cells on board, it also has enough battery power to charge 7,500 mobile phones, uses the same thermal protection casing (Portuguese cork) as you find in bottled wine and has the equivalent motor power that you find in a 535 bhp supercar. Serious enough for you?
As Phill O’Dell, Director of Flight Operations Rolls-Royce and pilot of ACCEL’s record-breaking flight said: “Electric aviation is absolutely and utterly here to stay.”
In any event, who would have thought being green could also be so fast?
The world of private aviation in Dubai is well known for truly unique displays of wealth and excess – and for truly unique marketing ideas to impress and delight the well-heeled.
This combination from Jetex and Bugatti is very original, executed perfectly, reflects beautifully the brand values and attention to detail of both companies and well, it will make you smile.
Even if it’s highly unlikely that someone stepping off a BBJ will be tempted by a spin in the Bugatti Baby II to the Jetex Terminal when the alternative is a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
And yet, perhaps just once….
Clever, original marketing from two great brands. (With a little help from RR and the BBJ).
P300E + P911 Turbo S. The Sum = More Than The Parts.
When two iconic brands that inspire a passionate following come together to provide a limited edition ground-air package, most aficionados who can afford the “Duet” as they’re being marketed will form a very fast but safe queue.
Some might argue that Brazilian and German heritages might not be natural bedfellows. However this bespoke combination of the Embraer Phenom 300E and the Porsche 911 Turbo S provides a bright light in dark pandemic times for sports car lovers who use private jets and vice-versa.
The ten (only) buyers who commit to this unique pairing will get lots of matching “bits ‘n bobs” such as Porsche seats redesigned to mirror the cockpit seats, the car clock with artificial horizon “instrumentation” and the new owners even get matching exterior paint schemes as well as plenty of other lovely touches such as a “No Step” door sill lettering in the Porsche to mirror the safety lettering on aircraft wings.
Whilst there have always been glossy images of sports cars paired with private jets, none have taken it to this level of design, detail, style, originality and commitment. Expect it to be sold out – very fast.
The Lilium Jet project has been in development since 2015 in Munich. According to their website, Lilium has attracted $375m in funding to date and currently (as of mid-2020) has over 500 employees.
With a plan including “Vertiports”, the Lilium Jet expects to be no louder than an electric car on the ground although expects to be as loud as a “passing truck” on take-off.
The Lilium Jet has 36 individual motors and four wings for directional flight control. Lilium are planning to certify and manufacture to the same regulatory standards as today’s commercial aircraft.
Carrying four passengers and with one pilot, the Lilium Jet is hoping to achieve 300km/h top speed and fly for about an hour – hence the tag: “All-electric regional air mobility”. Lilium are planning to formally launch commercial operations no later than 2025.
The electric aircraft and VTOL space is highly competitive, even in today’s COVID-19 world where commercial air travel is so compromised. A quick look at www.transportup.com gives a good indication as to how challenging this arena will and has already become.
One thing is clear: Lilium’s ambition is impressive.
With the current uncertainty over the future of business aviation as well as commercial aviation, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the enormous technical progress and advances in production technology that aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus have achieved over the years.
The Airbus 350-1000 (XWB) is the most recent and arguably the most remarkable example of a large commercial aircraft Type Certification.
The process involved is lengthy, very expensive and extremely labour intensive. It is also an intensely technical achievement, all of which is subject to ultimate approval from regulators in Europe, United States, Canada and other aviation authorities around the world.
No matter how much detailed planning and virtual design work is completed even before actual manufacturing begins, process turbulence to completion is pretty much inevitable given the complexities involved.
Even after a Type Certificate is approved for a specific aircraft type, there is no guarantee it will keep its approval – the difficulties experienced by Boeing over the 737-MAX are well documented.
Nevertheless, the video attached from Airbus charting the A350-1000 process gives a flavour of whats involved. Over 1600 Flight Test Hours after being first assembled, it was granted its Type Certificate on 21 November 2017, exactly and perhaps amazingly, on schedule.
With all the hype over Urban Air Taxis, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and eVTOLs, sometimes it is much more enjoyable to watch when the creative genius of the human brain can create something truly extraordinary but apparently simple.
What if an Italian University created a robotic walking dog which could pull an Avanti Evo business aircraft weighing well over 3 tonnes with no human assistance?
A team of Italian engineers and scientists have created such an “animal”. The successful results, seen in the attached video, can only be admired and applauded.
The robot dog is well matched of course by the remarkable and still unique Piaggio Aerospace Avanti aircraft, itself a wonderful creation from the 1980’s and well before its time in terms of radical design and aerodynamic innovation. The current iteration, the Avanti Evo, is still going strong today in spite of some recent corporate turbulence. In many ways, it is still ahead of its time.
Sonny from I,Robot won’t lose any sleep though and it’s unlikely this Italian robotic walking dog will replace aircraft tugs any time soon but very well done nonetheless to all the good folks in Genoa who made this happen.
With Tesla shutting its Model 3 showrooms and Amazon launching cashier-less food stores in Canada, the world of retail marketing is in flux. Who knows how the world will buy high-end products in future years, especially when it comes to demonstrating (and selling) private aircraft.
Selling a multi-million dollar long-range aircraft is a very different challenge to selling a bottle of ketchup (or even an electric car) so what does Gulfstream Aerospace do? Open a fully-fledged demonstration showroom in downtown Manhattan of course.
Clearly not every business aircraft manufacturer can afford to invest like this or could justify such an expensive city-centre location but it seems Gulfstream see a distinctive marketing advantage in providing such a customer-led initiative.
It’s a long way from Savannah but it certainly looks like a gutsy move. And a smart one.
With a tip o’ the hat to BJT for the attached video and a quiet nod to The Jet Business in London who arguably led the way with the concept.
McKinley Climatic Laboratory in Elgin Air Force Base, Florida.
Opened in 1947, this remarkable US Air Force-owned and operated facility is essentially a combination of a giant freezer and huge oven.
Used mainly to test US Military aircraft in extreme weather conditions, it is also used by commercial aircraft and business jet manufacturers to test aircraft awaiting final certification in very cold, very hot and very humid weather conditions in a laboratory environment.
Capable of generating over 990 tonnes of refrigeration for example, the equivalent of 1,500 home air conditioning units, this “hangar” in Florida can create temperatures as low as -65 degrees or +165 degrees Celcius, all in one day.
Used by all the major aircraft manufacturers for extreme weather testing as part of their certification approval requirements, the process normally takes about two weeks to complete and can can cost up to US$25,000 per day to “rent” the facility from the US Air Force. Cheaper and easier of course than flying the aircraft to similar real-world conditions…even if there was a usable runway nearby such conditions and available exactly when required.
It is also used by many of the the world’s car manufacturers which is just as well – the normal monthly electricity cost is well over US$100,000.
Secure the aircraft to the floor for full engine runs and away you go? Need North Pole and Equator conditions in the space of a few hours? Sounds simple but it’s not of course. Furthermore, it is a necessary, complicated and costly part of of the certification process for any commercial aircraft. Ah, the joys of being an OEM.
Embraer’s Praetor: Disruptor, Devolver or Derivative?
Arguably, the big news from the annual NBAA event in Orlando on 16-18 October was the glitzy launch of Embraer’s “new” Praetor 500 and Praetor 600 jets to the Midsize and Super-Midsize segment.
The inverted commas reflect some media comment that both “new” aircraft offer not much more than souped-up engines, an improved fuel capacity, Tron-Legacy style winglets and cosmetic (if significant) cabin improvements to the Legacy 450 and Legacy 500 models. (e.g. Flight Global called the Praetor family “a notable upgrade” on the Legacy 450/500.)
The much-repeated “Disruptive Aircraft” marketing phrase used by Embraer establishes a worthy challenge to the Big 4 of Gulfstream, Bombardier, Textron and Dassault Falcon in this very competitive market segment. It’s also sending a clear signal that the Embraer innovations in Fly-By-Wire cockpit technology and the use of the latest cabin materials and products (e.g. Carbon Fiber cabin tables and latest ground-to-air connectivity system) is their vision of how future business jets will evolve. Supported by the all-important and very tasty range improvement promise from extra fuel tanks in both models, the Praetor family look and sound very impressive.
Embraer CEO Michael Amalfitano’s Aviator shades and accompanying Top Gun soundtrack undoubtedly captured the imagination and the Praetor launch event, some two days prior to the formal opening of NBAA itself, certainly stole the pre-show headlines, even if you’re still torn between Goose and Maverick.
Perhaps surprisingly, the NetJets/Cessna announced “order” for 325 Longitude and Hemisphere jets was tempered by the fact that the purchase deal is not yet finalised, even if Scott Donnelly from Textron and Adam Johnson from NetJets seem very confident it will happen. With NetJets having just placed an order for it’s 100th Latitude and with a strong track record from both companies in terms of completion of previous large order announcements at business aviation shows such as NBAA, we can expect further news on the mammoth NetJets/Cessna order before the EBACE 2019 show, scheduled for 21-23 May 2019 in Geneva.
By co-incidence, we’re told the Praetor 600 will be certified and enter into service around the same time as EBACE 2019, followed by the Praetor 500 in Q3 2019.
In the meantime, enjoy the Need for Speed and the er…Embraer version…of Top Gun.
