COMMERCIAL AVIATION
ZeroAvia | February 08, 2023
On February 07, 2023, one of the leaders in developing zero-emission solutions for commercial aviation, ZeroAvia, announced a collaboration agreement had been signed with Shell, Rotterdam The Hague Innovation Airport (RHIA) and Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and the companies will develop flights to European destinations, with a concept and demonstration of operations for hydrogen in airports by the end of 2024, getting prepared for commercial passenger flights by 2025.
This collaboration will serve the first hydrogen flight from Rotterdam, developing on-the-ground infrastructure and operations to successfully pilot the distribution, storage, and dispensing of hydrogen for aviation, and ultimately decarbonizing the entire airport ecosystem, following on the announcement made last year about the cooperation commitment to launch the first hydrogen-electric commercial flight.
The project's goal is to enable gaseous hydrogen to power ZeroAvia's emission-free ZA600 engines. The companies collaborated with aims to establish routes to European airports within 250 nautical miles of Rotterdam for the specific demonstration flights. The previous month, ZeroAvia demonstrated a 19-seater flight first one, which is powered by its prototype ZA600 engine. Additionally, the project will target the development of aviation-specific protocols and standards around the safety, hydrogen and refueling management and enable the rollout of the promising fuel effortlessly.
With the project, Shell brings critical experiences and technical capabilities. The knowledge encompasses global experiences in the design and operation of refueling equipment, including hydrogen, and understanding the hydrogen industry from start to finish. The company’s investments in hydrogen production projects are made to foster the growth of hydrogen economies across the globe. Shell collaborates with airports to develop infrastructure that fits for the future and will allow supplying customers with sustainable aviation fuel, electric plane charging and hydrogen as 'multi-modular' infrastructure.
About ZeroAvia
Founded in 2017, ZeroAvia is the leading hydro-emission aviation, focusing on hydrogen-electric aircraft solutions. The company aims to serve multiple markets, starting with those within a 300-mile range of 9-19-seat aircraft by 2025 and then expanding to those within a 700-mile range of 40-80-seat aircraft by 2027. Based in Hollister, California, ZeroAvia has already succeeded in getting experimental certificates from the CAA and FAA for its two-prototype aircraft. It has also passed important flight test milestones, formed key partnerships with major aircraft OEMs and airlines worldwide, and is on track to start commercial operations in 2025.
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AIR TRANSPORT
Airspace Link, Inc. | February 07, 2023
On February 6, 2023, Airspace Link, Inc. announced the AirHub® Portal, the next generation of the AirHub® Platform. Airspace Link has kept innovating in their mission to assist stakeholders in boosting safe drone integration in national airspace and communities at scale since the launch of their UAS Integration Framework last fall.
The announcement combines Airspace Link's AirHub® technology with their UAS Integration framework approach, making AirHub® Portal a common platform for the UAS industry and government stakeholders. AirHub® Portal simplifies workflows for users involved in drone integration, such as state, national, and local government planners, managers, and drone operators, as well as recreational and certified pilots seeking to benefit from airspace for private and commercial use cases.
AirHub® Portal is a progressive web application that allows users to download it directly on their desktop or mobile device, or access it via the web, based on their preference. The application lets users prepare and organize for, manage, and conduct drone operations within a unified system.
As the drone industry grows, fragmentation due to specific applications created for particular use cases has increased, leaving users dependent on various applications to meet their needs. AirHub® Portal brings together users to facilitate all future use cases and functions.
Airspace Link is announcing the addition of numerous new features to the AirHub® Portal App, including Airspace Awareness, Fleet Management Integration, Mission Planning including Routing, UAS Traffic, Authoritative & Enterprise Advisories (Constraints), Risk Analysis and Situational Awareness, and much more to come.
Michael Healander, President & CEO at Airspace Link, shared, "In the past, our government customers were focused on enabling and supporting operators – but now, government customers are also operators themselves, buying and operating their own drones for public safety, infrastructure inspection, surveying, and other use cases designed to make work safer and more efficient. Having tools to help them understand their airspace, communicate with pilots, and provide the functions necessary to help them operate and manage their own drone fleets has become increasingly important to them. The AirHub® Portal application will begin to serve all of those needs in one place."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
About Airspace Link, Inc.
Airspace Link, Inc. is a provider of safe and scalable drone solutions headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Through digital infrastructure, strategic partnerships, and thought leadership, the company aims to facilitate the secure integration of drones at scale into the national airspace and communities. The AirHub® Platform is the sole cloud-based, digital geospatial infrastructure integrating the requirements of state and local governments to prepare for, plan, create, and manage their drone community per FAA regulations and Drone Operator considerations.
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AIR TRANSPORT
SandboxAQ | February 06, 2023
An enterprise SaaS company, SandboxAQ delivers the compound effects of AQ (AI and Quantum) technology to governments and the Global 1000. It recently announced that the U.S. Air Force had awarded the company the Direct-to-Phase-II SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contract to research quantum navigation technologies.
SandboxAQ will advance research and development for its quantum navigation system, as mentioned in the contract awarded. The quantum navigation system is being designed to complete the Global Positioning System (GPS) for precise navigation in contested, degraded, or denied environments where the loss of precision GPS might negatively impact operations.
The optimization of the company's AQ-powered quantum sensor will be done with the help of U.S. Air Force customers. This will be further improved with various known innovation areas, including live demonstrations aboard Air Force aircraft.
President of the Public Sector at SandboxAQ, Jen Sovada, said, "The SandboxAQ team is thrilled to be advancing this cutting-edge navigation research in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force." She also said, "AQ-powered navigation technology has great potential to be part of a comprehensive and resilient Assured Positioning, Navigation, and Timing solution across all domains and military service branches as well as for the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA. It also offers tremendous dual-use promise in the commercial sector for areas such as commercial aviation, unmanned vehicles, and logistics. We look forward to sharing the results of this exciting step forward."
(Source: Cision)
About SandboxAQ
Based in Silicon Valley (California), SandboxAQ is harnessing the exponential power of AI and quantum technology. An enterprise SaaS company aims to develop commercial products for financial services, telecom, healthcare, the federal government, computer security and other computationally intensive sectors. The company's unique approach toward the customers enables it to cross-pollinate across various fields. In addition, the company is committed to education to advance quantum solutions and computing initiatives. The company's core team and ideas came together at Alphabet Inc. In 2022, the company emerged as an independent business backed by growth capital.
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