After several delays, Eviation's redesigned Alice all-electric fixed-wing aircraft achieved its first flight in Moses Lake, Washington, just after dawn on September 27. This marks the start of a flight-test campaign that the company hopes will result in type certification under Part 23 rules in 2025, with commercial operations to begin in 2027.

Vertical Aerospace has started the flight test campaign for its VX4 eVTOL aircraft and now says it hopes to complete concurrent type certification in 2025. The piloted flight tests require a permit from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, which is expected to certify the all-electric aircraft concurrently with Europe's EASA aviation safety agency.

Lilium is preparing to add another test aircraft to the type certification campaign and aims to start assembling a fully conforming example of the seven-passenger model in 2023. The company reports 483 provisional sales of the Lilium Jet and is taking deposits for a "limited edition" version for private clients.

According to Electra, South Korea's MintAir is the 20th prospective customer to commit to bringing its hybrid-electric eSTOL aircraft into commercial service. The fixed-wing model is projected to need just 300 feet of landing strip to allow access to multiple locations that don't currently have convenient air service.

Blade Urban Air Mobility deployed helicopters from its charter network to give customers a taste of what $150 rides connecting the downtown Vertiport Chicago with the Schaumberg and Tinley Park suburbs could do for personal and business lifestyles. Blade has committed to adding Eve's eVTOL aircraft to its networks in the U.S. and India.

The third in an ongoing series of flight tests as part of Europe's CORUS-XUAM uncrewed traffic management concept of operations project evaluated what happens when plans have to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances. Volocopter's 2X eVTOL vehicle and the Boreal UAS drone used an uncrewed traffic management system, while Pipistrel's Velis Electro aircraft employed the local air traffic management system at the Paris-area Pontoise airfield.

The FAA has published eagerly awaited standards on vertiport design that will provide infrastructure developers with important guidance on topics such as the recharging of electric aircraft. The U.S. aviation safety agency has advised that standards will need to evolve as more complete information on the performance of new eVTOL aircraft becomes available.

Based on work conducted with its earlier SD-03 technology demonstrator, Japan's SkyDrive has designed its SD-05 production eVTOL aircraft and aims to get it to market in 2025, following the start of flight testing in 2024. The two-seater will be able to fly only 10 kilometers on a single charge, but the company says it will fill an urgent need for "last mile" transportation in busy and geographically challenged cities.

The high-volume operations promised by developers of new eVTOL aircraft for services including air taxis and cargo deliveries will be viable only if the new sector of aviation can recruit and train thousands of pilots. But flight crew are in short supply, and this challenge has prompted companies such as L3Harris to simplify and accelerate the task of training for new aircraft that should be highly automated. The company showed FutureFlight its new flight training device on a mission into the center of Los Angeles.

Kittyhawk has released video of the single-seat Heaviside personal air vehicle, but steadfastly declines to comment on its planned timeline for type certification and service entry.