Volant Aerotech has unveiled a full-scale technology demonstrator of the four-passenger VE25 eVTOL aircraft, for which it aims to achieve type certification in 2026. The Chinese company rolled out the first full-scale example of the lift-and-cruise design on September 2 at an airfield in Yixin, a city near Shanghai.

Vermont-based eVTOL aircraft developer Beta Technologies says no one was injured after a lithium-ion battery caught fire in a shipping container outside its headquarters at Burlington International Airport.

VPorts, a Mirabel, Québec-based company founded in 2021 to develop AAM infrastructure, announced on Tuesday its plans to create the region’s first eVTOL vertiport network. Initially, VPorts will focus on regional cargo flights and the transportation of patients and medical supplies, including organs for transplants. 

Destinus, a Swiss start-up that aims to develop a hydrogen-powered hypersonic aircraft for high-speed cargo deliveries, has resumed test flights with its Jungfrau technology demonstrator after the initial test flight of a second, larger prototype didn’t go as smoothly as planned. 

Kaman Aerospace plans to demonstrate the Kargo UAV aircraft by the end of 2022 to prospective U.S. military customers. Powered by a Rolls-Royce RR300 turboshaft engine, the model is expected to be able to carry 800-pound loads up to 500 nm, building on the success of Kaman's uncrewed K-Max heavy lifter in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Safran has begun talks to acquire Thales’s aeronautical systems business next year. The proposed transaction would involve Thales Avionics Electrical Systems and Thales Avionics Electrical Motors companies, which operate sites in the Paris region in Chatou, Meru, and Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, as well as the support, maintenance, and production activities for aeronautical electrical equipment in Florida and Singapore.

Jeju Island has announced its intention to launch eVTOL air taxi routes for tourists in 2025, making it South Korea’s first municipality to adopt plans for urban air mobility. Three flight paths along the island’s coastlines will connect the Jeju International Airport to some of the island’s most popular tourist destinations. 

With a fixed wing and 30 ducted fan electric motors, the seven-seat Lilium Jet is expected to operate scheduled service flights connecting cities up to around 155 miles apart in markets such as Florida, Europe, and Brazil. The German start-up’s business vice president Sebastien Borel explained this plan to FutureFlight. He also talked about how the eVTOL vehicle’s performance could support other business models, such as private flights with partners including fractional ownership and charter group NetJets.

Archer is one of half a dozen or so start-ups leading the pack in seeking to bring its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft into commercial service by 2025. The company recently completed the preliminary design review for the initial production version of its eVTOL air taxi, called Midnight, and it has received a $10 million down payment from United Airlines for the first 100 of 200 eVTOL aircraft that the airline provisionally agreed to buy in February 2021.