Unique Aircraft Considered for Statewide Emergency Response

Jump Aero, a California-based developer and manufacturer of novel aerospace solutions, and the Utah Department of Transportation-Division of Aeronautics have signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) setting forth the two entities’ agreement to collaboratively examine the viability of providing flight-based first-responder operations across the whole of the Beehive State by dint of Jump Aero’s JA1 Pulse eVTOL aircraft.

Coming Home to Roost

In the late 1960s, for purpose of contemporaneously meeting demand and controlling production costs, Britten-Norman moved its manufacturing operations from the U.K. to Romania. In an ironic reversal of fortune, the company, in June 2023, announced aircraft production would return to Britten-Norman’s historic digs in the village of Bembridge on the U.K.’s Isle of Wight.

Rise of the Cyclorotor

In late-September 2023, CycloTech released video footage of the first flight of the company’s Bumblebee 2.0 concept aircraft. The flight, which had taken place a month prior, showcased the machine’s unusual configuration, which features four CR42 cyclorotors and an advanced flight-control system. The commencement of the Bumblebee 2.0 platform’s flight-testing campaign speaks to the ongoing evolution of CycloTech’s unique aero-propulsion scheme.

Autumn in France

VoltAero, the French aerospace company founded by former Airbus chief technical officer Didier Esteyne, has broken ground on a final-assembly line on the Rochefort Charente-Maritime Airport (LRH) in France’s southwestern Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The 7,874-square-foot facility will serve as the build-up site and delivery center for VoltAero’s inchoate line of Cassio general aviation regional aircraft, and will house the contraption’s final-assembly line, a workshop, a logistics area, and design/engineering offices. Operated at full-capacity, VoltAero anticipates the LRH installation will produce approximately 150 Cassio family aircraft annually. Moreover, the structure’s layout allows for future expansion

Roll Reversal

The NTSB has released its preliminary report on a 09 September 2023 accident in which a Champion 7KCAB Citabria, registration N998B, was substantially damaged shortly after departing Arizona’s Benson Municipal Airport (E95). The aircraft’s two occupants—a flight-instructor and a student-pilot receiving instruction—escaped injury. The accident-aircraft was operated as an instructional flight under Part 91 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.