AAM updates from Dubai of Archer, AutoFlight, CityAirbus and Eve

Last week’s Dubai Airshow not only focused on commercial and military aircraft and products but also on Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). In fact, a dedicated hall for eVTOLs and part suppliers was new at this year’s event. Archer, AutoFlight, Airbus, EVE Air Mobility, and lesser-known companies shared commercial and program updates. Archer Archer brought a full-scale model of the Midnight to Dubai, for which it needed three containers and a cargo plane to fly it to the airshow. On the commercial side, Archer signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UAE-based Air Chateau for the purchase of up to 100 Midnights valued at $500 million. Air Chateau is the first private helicopter operator in the UAE and has multiple ‘touchpoints’ across the Emirates. The MoU follows earlier announcements to bring the Midnight to the region, especially the MoU with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to launch eVTOL services between Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2026. The new contracts confirm the importance of the UAE region to Archer, CEO Adam Goldstein told AirInsight: “Mubadala has been an investor in Archer since 2021, they are a big support of us as we got along in the journey. We think the UAE can be a great launch market and will be our first international launch market. It is a region that has a forward-leaning, pro-technology, supportive regulatory framework and lots of infrastructure providers that want to see the networks come to life. It’s not just for Archer but for the whole industry to see the UAE actually be one of the regions that helps us come to market.” Archer is in the planning phase for launching operations in 2026 in the region. First, the Midnight will have to be certified in the FAA. “Concurrently or shortly after, we will have the certification with GCAA in the UAE. We are working with infrastructure and MRO providers, and operators to build the network and, ultimately, have a full ecosystem built that is ready to go in 2026. We will start relatively modest with point-to-point flights, adding new destinations over time and ultimately bringing the whole community along as we stand.” Goldstein is positive that the FAA will be able to certify the Midnight in 2025. A lot of work needs to be done, but this is still the objective. It fits the strategy set out earlier by former FAA Administrator Billy Nolen (now with Archer) to have eVTOLs flying in high numbers at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Goldstein hopes that when VoloCopter gets certified to operate eVTOL flights during next year’s Paris Olympic Games, this will accelerate certification. “It would be very exciting if VoloCopter is able to fly in Paris. That would be a huge elevation for the whole industry. As other regulators move to certify, it will encourage global regulators to see this as great, safe, new technology that can be accessible to the world. I look at it as a positive for everyone.” Archer started flight tests with the first non-conforming Midnight in late October, doing hover tests only so far. The aim is to move to transition flights in early 2024, eventually using more than six vehicles. Asked if the incident with the Vertical Aerospace VX-4 this summer during a simulated motor failure has affected Archer’s approach to flight testing and safety, Goldstein said: “Midnight is the eighth vehicle we have been flying since 2009 without incident. There are always risks of incidents with experimental aircraft, but Archer is doing a good job and taking a slow and steady approach to our flight test program. I don’t think the Vertical incident has had an impact. There have been several incidents in the industry. But it is a reminder for everyone to always be vigilant. Safety first is one of our core values. Bringing in Billy Nolen as our chief safety officer ramps that up even further.” AutoFlight Chinese/German eVTOL maker AutoFlight had its Prosperity outside the AAM hall on static display, also attracting attention from local aerospace stakeholders. During the airshow, AutoFlight signed an MoU with Falcon Aviation to jointly develop an AAM strategy in the UAE and wider region. Falcon already has a similar partnership with Archer and Eve. AutoFlight and Falcon intend to showcase and demonstrate the four-seater Prosperity and the cargo version, the CarryAll, to the region. In fact, the unmanned CarryAll with a payload capacity of 2.000 kilograms will be the first vehicle that AutoFlight intends to certify, in China. Managing Director Mark Henning expects certification to happen in the next few months. At the same time, flight testing with non-conforming Prosperity aircraft continues. AutoFlight demonstrated a test flight of three proof-of-concept vehicles flying together in the greater Shanghai area in July, although one of the aircraft has already been retired since. Before that, it demonstrated flying the vehicle over 250 kilometers on a single battery load. It's not just because the founder of AutoFlight, Tian Yu, is Chinese that the company wants to certify its products in China first, says Henning: “There is a whole team available with the certification agency CAAC. China is pushing to be in a leading role with AAM. The positive thing is that their procedures are in line with the framework we know from EASA for what we call special conditions eVTOLs and Part 21. When Prosperity is certified in China, we will come East to West. We get here to the GCAA in the Middle East, then we go to Europe with EASA, and then to the US and the FAA.” Henning says there is no downside to having Prosperity certified in China first and then in the West, where regulators might have different requirements for eVTOLs. “I think it is the opposite. Except for the Ehang in China, nobody in the Western world has certified an eVTOL yet. The earlier we can start operations, the earlier we can learn how the aircraft behaves and how the ecosystem needs to be set up and run. We can go to EASA and FAA, having already proven how it operates based on real data. This is far more valuable than flying with just three aircraft.” “For some of the players like Joby Aviation or VoloCopter, I really wish they will make the certification and entry into service next year or the year after. Because they will pave the way, they will be trailblazing for the entire industry,” said Henning. “Recently, there were demo flights in New York, so people are seeing that this is not science fiction anymore. eVTOLs are going to come, 100 percent sure. The question is how fast it will be and how good are we as OEMs to develop them.” AutoFlight will launch the final spec of the Prosperity in 2024 and aims to certify it in 2027. The company has letters of intent for some 800 vehicles, primarily from customers in China and the Middle East. CityAirbus NextGen Airbus had a very low-profile presence of its eVTOL product, the CityAirbus NextGen which was officially launched in September 2021. The OEM organized a media briefing, in which Balkiz Sarihan said that assembly of the first vehicle is underway in its German facilities in Donauwörth near Munich. Compared to some of the other eVTOL makers, Airbus hasn’t announced any potential partners or customers so far, except for THC in Saudi Arabia and ITA Airways. It will only announce sales when it is ready to do so. As Sarihan explained, Airbus is taking a very cautious approach to Advanced Air Mobility: “We take a very pragmatic approach because when this aircraft flies, it will cross over our cities, in our communities. They need to serve a purpose. Safety is a non-negotiable, as is support. So when such an aircraft flies with the Airbus name, we want to put everything behind it that you would expect from any other Airbus product.” Airbus is investing a lot of effort into how the battery packs are integrated and used. “These are the same batteries that go into our satellites. The flight controls are the same that we are using on our existing aircraft. This is one of the powers that comes with being part of Airbus.” CityAirbus is an independent unit within Airbus, although fully funded by the parent company. It is also an internal customer, as it subcontracts work within Airbus. The CityAirbus will not just be another air taxi. Airbus is looking very carefully at the different mission profiles that the eVTOL can do. The most important role seen now is that of medical services. The second role is connecting communities in regions where there is a lack of infrastructure, with the third that of scheduled shuttle services or tourism. Airbus will start testing the CityAirbus in Q1 next year. It has built a purpose-built test facility where most of the ground tests can be done, including hover tests. Flight tests will be done outside. Sarihan was unwilling to share details of the number of aircraft or the test schedule. “We have a stepwise approach. There is so much to learn when she first takes flights and first goes into service. Doing everything at once, just to try to make the business case somehow more attractive is not our objective.” Airbus Helicopters’ Flightlab testing facilities will be used to introduce autonomy to the flight controls. But Sarihan added that “we will not be autonomous, this is not our intent, not from day 1. Technology is not a challenge, but when we put the general public into this type of aircraft, we really believe that we need to have a pilot there. And we need to mature the technology.” Sarihan was unwilling to share details of the number of aircraft or the test schedule. EVE Air Mobility Eve Air Mobility brought the mock-up of its eVTOL to Dubai for display in the AAM hall. The company, owned by Zanite and Embraer, announced a letter of intent with Swedish vertiport developer Kookiejar to support and develop the infrastructure at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport. Eve already has regional partnerships in Dubai with Air Chateau, the same company that signed an MoU with Archer during the airshow. Eve also announced an MoU with NATS Services, the commercial arm of the UK’s air traffic management agency. The two companies will develop future traffic management services for Urban Air Mobility operators around the world. Both have already worked together since 2021 on various projects, including the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) with the UK regulator CAA. In a contract with Hunch Mobility, Eve plans to introduce AAM operations to Bangalore in India. This also covers working together with federal and local agencies to get the appropriate infrastructure in place. Hunch earlier signed an MoU for up to 200 Eve’s that included a three-month pilot project to test fly with helicopters in Bangalore. David Rottblatt, Vice President of Sales and Government Affairs, said during a pre-airshow Embraer Symposium that Eve has now secured LoIs for 2.890 vehicles from 28 eVTOL customers and 11 UATM customers worth $8.8 billion, with deposits received for all the LoI’s that have been signed. There are also contracts with seven customers for servicing the vehicles. Rottblatt said that Eve recently signed a LoI with a customer for an additional 40 vehicles in the Gulf region. Although included in the backlog, the customer's name wasn’t announced during the airshow. So far, Falcon Aviation is the only customer in the UAE with an order for 35 eVTOLs. As announced in June, San Francisco will be the launch city for Eve together with United Airlines in 2026.

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