Recent Updates

Uber Elevate hopes to have urban mobility services operating in Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, by 2023. Eric Allison, who heads up Uber’s aviation division, told an audience at NBAA-BACE 2019 in Las Vegas the form and function of the new type of urban transportation is starting to come together into what he terms […]

Business jet passengers want the same internet services they enjoy at home and at work and satellite provider Viasat has figured out how to offer streaming services like Netflix without busting data caps. AVweb spoke with Viasat’s Claudio d’Amico at NBAA-BACE.

The South African kit manufacturer celebrated a milestone this week when the first Sling TSi built at the company’s Southern Californian builder-assistance center completed its 40-hour Phase I flight-test program. The four-seat Sling has been offered as a kit for some time but the company has been busy setting up a stateside builder-assist program at […]

A critical step in the integration of unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System is scheduled for Dec. 20 as the FAA releases its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on remote identification requirements for drones. The agency will require that all drones emit some kind of signal giving aircraft and ownership information and that’s considered fundamental […]

Swiss International Airlines temporarily grounded its fleet of Airbus A220 aircraft following an in-flight engine failure on Tuesday that caused a Geneva-bound Swiss Air flight to divert to Paris, France. According to France’s Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la Sécurité de l’Aviation Civile (BEA—Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety), this is the […]

Airbus delivered the 1,000th aircraft in its A320neo family of passenger jets on Thursday. The neo—standing for “new engine option”—line includes the A319neo, A320neo and A321neo. Number 1000, an A321neo, went to India-based airline IndiGo, Airbus’ biggest customer for the A320neo family with orders for 430 aircraft. The aircraft was assembled at Airbus’ factory in […]

Boeing and Porsche announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Thursday launching a partnership to “explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace.” According to Boeing, the companies plan to create a team to study areas of urban air mobility including market analysis and use cases […]

Embraer announced that it has successfully completed the first test of an autonomous aircraft in Brazil. As shown in the video below, the taxi test, which was overseen by a pilot in the cockpit, took the aircraft “along a previously established path without human interference.” According to Embraer, an integrated artificial intelligence system capable of […]

Aerial application solutions company UAVOS announced that it has converted a Robinson R22-UV helicopter for use as an unmanned agricultural drone. In addition to the modifications necessary for remote operation, the R22-UV “agro-drone” has been equipped with a 100-liter (26-gallon) tank and spray system for liquid chemical delivery. According to the company, the aircraft has […]

Kitty Hawk’s latest entry into the incipient urban mobility market is missing something important and it might be its biggest selling point. The new Heaviside (named for Oliver Heaviside, a controversial early 20th century physicist and electrical engineer) is virtually silent in flight with a noise level of about 38 decibels at 1,500 feet. Helicopters […]