Author: Xin Gou

The Tecnam P2010 H3PS parallel hybrid electric powered airplane, developed jointly by Tecnam, Rolls Royce and Rotax, made the first flight on December  21^st, 2021, at precisely 3:54 pm CET. The Permit to Fly was issued by ENAC, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority.

This is the first General Aviation aircraft with a parallel hybrid configuration to take flight.

The flight was performed by Tecnam’s Chief Experimental Test Pilot Lorenzo De Stefano, with Tecnam, Rolls-Royce and Rotax Teams on the ground assisting in this historic moment.

Tecnam P2010 H3PS is powered by a 104kW Rotax 915 IS engine coupled with a 30kW Rolls-Royce electric motor, totaling 134kW (180hp) powertrain in a fully integrated parallel hybrid configuration. As such, this four-seat aircraft is first of its kind.

H3PS, which stands for “High Power High Scalability Aircraft Hybrid Powertrain”, is a project funded under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Launched in 2018, the project has reached its objectives. With H3PS’ success, Tecnam Aircraft and project partners have validated the aircraft’s scalability potential, lower emissions, state of the art power management technology, building a viable launchpad for future green aircraft models.

On 14 Feburary 2021 the founder and former CEO of Eviation Aircraft Omer Bar-Yohay annouced that he is “stepping down from my position as CEO after a long-standing disagreement with the company’s main shareholder.”

Eviation has been developing the full electric-powered 9-seat “Alice” commuter electric airplane which began high speed taxiing test and is planned to make the first flight later this year.

It is noteworthy that the former chairman of Eviation and the founder and former CEO of MagniX Roei Ganzarski has also left the position in both companies last month. Both Eviation and MagniX have the major shareholder of Singapore-based Clermont Group.

The Transformative Vertical Flight 2022 meeting, organized by Vertical Flight Society (VFS), will take place Jan. 25-27, 2022 in San Jose, California, with an “air taxi” aircraft display on Friday, Jan. 28. 

The meeting this year includes two events:

Aeromechanics for Advanced Vertical Flight which provides a forum for technical paper presentations on emerging aeromechanics challenges and solution methods for future vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, encompassing dynamics, aerodynamics, acoustics and flight mechanics.

9th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium which includes invited presentations from leaders in this exciting field. This event is an excellent opportunity to learn about and discuss the latest advancements in eVTOL, and the challenges that still remain. Willi Tacke from Flying Pages GmbH will present the update of eVTOL policymaking and market development in Europe and Asia on Jan. 25.

for more information: https://vtol.org/events/2022-transformative-vertical-flight

As the current epidemic situation is still severe and complicated, the organizer of AERO ASIA decide to reschedule AERO Asia from March 2-5, 2022 in Zhuhai China to November, 2023 in Zhuhai, China.

AERO Asia is the leading Business and General Aviation show for China and Asia, and is the result of the enduring efforts of two successful and experienced aviation trade shows: AERO in Friedrichshafen, Germany and Airshow China in Zhuhai, China. AERO in Friedrichshafen, Germany, is the world’s leading general aviation business show with over 40 years of experience. Airshow China is China’s biggest airshow since 1996 which has become one of the leading airshows in the world.

AERO ASIA is more than just a trade show. It sees itself as a central platform for general aviation in China, as a positive booster in market development, as well as as a showcase for innovation and new technologies such as electric aviation and eVTOL. The show is looking forward to its first session in November 2023 in Zhuhai, China.

Shanghai-based eVTOL startup Autoflight annouced today that they have set up a reseasrch, development and certification center in Augsburg, Germany, and will apply for EASA certification of their V1500M 4-seat eVTOL. The former head of Airbus EC135 and H145 projects Mark Henning joined as the head of Autoflight Europe.

Autoflight plans to start the EASA certification process of the V1500M eVTOL in 2022, and to obtain the EASA type certification in 2025. They also plan to establish more demo flight sites and conduct more demo flights in Europe.

Mr. Henning has 26 years of experience in the aviation industry. A graduate of the Technical University of Munich, he started his career at the German aerospace company DASA, holding managerial positions at the European aerospace defense group EADS and the European helicopter company Eurocopter. Before joining Autoflight, he worked in Airbus Group, and served as the head of EC135 and H145 helicopter programs, as well as project management, strategy, production and R&D positions, and participated in many large-scale fixed-wing and helicopter R&D and manufacturing projects.

More information in an exclusive Interview with Mark Henning the next issue of e-flight-Journal later this week.

On 30 December 2021 the Chinese regulator CAAC published the special conditions (SC) of the lithium batteries for light sports airplane (LSA). CAAC states in the document that since there is no technical requirement for lithium batteries in ASTM F2840-14 technical standard for LSA, this SC is . The SC is necessary for the certification of electric LSA.

RX1E, RX1E-A and the float plane model RX1E-S are the three electric LSA models certified by CAAC employing this SC which may also be the basis for the ongoing Part23 RX4E four-seat electric airplane certification.

This SC can be downloaded at (in Chinese only): http://www.caac.gov.cn/XXGK/XXGK/BZGF/ZYTJHHM/202112/P020211231536548727917.pdf

On December 30, 2021 a 50% sub-scale model of the E20 eVTOL developed by Shanghai-based startup TCab made the first flight. The sub-scale model has 6 meters wingspan and interestingly, variable propellors.

TCab was founded this year in Shanghai. Its first design is E20 which has design parameters of 5 seats, pure electric, a combination of both tilt rotors and “lift and cruise” configuration, cruise speed 260km/h, range 200km. TCab revealed a full size mockup of E20 early this month.

The 5th e-Flight Forum, organized by Flying Pages and Z-Park General Aviation Industry Alliance and hosted by Xiaoting district, Yichang City, China, continues into the second and the final day. More than 60 speakers from China, US, Germany, UK, Australia present the latest development in electric aviation.

You can watch the live streaming of the second day of the forum at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y78MAadj6M

Today Shanghai-based eVTOL startup TCab Aero unveiled E20 eVTOL full-size mockup and vertiport-based operation ecosystem concept.

E20 has design parameters of 5 seats, pure electric, a combination of both tilt rotors and “lift and cruise” configuration, cruise speed 260km/h, range 200km.

TCab Tech was founded in Shanghai in May 2021 with a group of veterans with the background of both conventional aviation industry and eVTOL.

TCab metaphors ‘time cab’, named with the mission to offer affordable and time-efficient means of transportation to the general public, and above all, having everyone enjoys the moment of flight.

The founder and CEO of the company, Yon Wui NG, was previously Vice General Manager of Geely Terrafugia responsible for the eVTOL aircraft named TF-2A. Before Geely Terrafugia, Yon spent 10 years with Airbus China Engineering Center whereby one of his positions was Head of Engineering for the engineering center.

TCab Tech securied close to 10 millions USD this Autumn from their Seed and Seed+ series fundraising. 

The German Aerospace Center DLR is has investigating the overall system of a hybrid-electric short-haul aircraft for up to 100 passengers together with Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V..This program is part of the SynergIE joint project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

Research efforts are focused on new aircraft configurations that can be successfully operated commercially with significantly lower emissions and reduced noise pollution. As a final design for an aircraft with distributed hybrid-electric propulsion, the researchers selected and evaluated a concept with turbogenerators in the fuselage and 10 electric motors along the leading edge of the wing as the best solution out of the various possible arrangements. The optimal design and installation of the propellers makes it possible to reduce the chord of the wing and size of the rudder, and thus reduce energy consumption by approximately 10 percent.

“In conventional regional aircraft, the wings are often oversized in order to achieve good performance during take-off and landing,” explains Martin Hepperle from the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology. “These aircraft then have excessively high energy consumption during cruising flight.”

The flight characteristics of the prototype have already been tested in the DLR AVES flight simulator. In future, remaining questions on the aeroacoustics of the distributed propellers and on optimal flap systems for landing approaches are to be resolved.