The manufacturer on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Verocel, a software verification and validation (V&V) company focused on the certification of aerospace software—with a particular focus on autonomous designs. Unlike competitors such as Archer Aviation or Joby Aviation, which plan to fly autonomous in the future, Wisk intends for its Gen 6 to fly itself at launch.

Verocel’s flagship offering, VeroTrace, assists manufacturers with software certification definitions, tracking, and submissions to the FAA. Wisk intends to use it to support Gen 6 certification, but it said the software may also be used in “future software development projects for Boeing.” In addition, more than 50 Verocel engineers based in Massachusetts and Poland will join Wisk.

“High-integrity software development is critical for our mission to certify an autonomous, electric aircraft, with V&V being a significant portion of the total software certification effort,” said Brian Yutko, CEO of Wisk. “Verocel’s specialized and talented team will bring with them deep experience and rigor, helping to accelerate our autonomous certification project that is already well underway.”

According to Verocel, team members have extensive knowledge of Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification, or DO-178C—a document used by regulators including the FAA, European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and Transport Canada to approve commercial aerospace software.

The company is part of several aerospace industry standards committees including a special committee within the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), the EUROCAE Working Group, and the FAA’s Overarching Properties Working Group. Over the course of 25 years and more than 160 projects, it has performed work for Boeing and GE Aerospace, among others.

“Not only is this a chance to directly apply our expertise to the certification of a groundbreaking technology, but this is also an incredible opportunity for Verocel talent to excel within Wisk and the broader Boeing ecosystem long term,” said Jim Chelini, president of Verocel.

Beyond V&V, Verocel also develops the safety computers used in the FAA’s Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), which is intended to improve the accuracy and availability of global positioning systems (GPS). WAAS allows an aircraft to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, including vertical landings.

Wisk is staring down a more rigorous certification process than its competitors, and the acquisition of Verocel is intended to get the ball rolling faster. The manufacturer aims to introduce the Gen 6 before the end of the decade in markets such as Los Angeles and the Greater Houston Area, where it is developing a vertiport hub at Sugar Land Regional Airport (KSGR).

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Joby on Thursday introduced its Elevate Operating Software (ElevateOS), a suite of platforms designed to help the company support on-demand air taxi operations the same way Uber and Lyft manage ground-based rideshare services. According to the company, ElevateOS is approved for company use under the FAA Part 135 permissions it was awarded in May 2022.

The firm says the system represents a key piece of what it has termed its “preflight checklist”— a set of objectives it aims to complete before launching a commercial U.S. service in 2025 with partner and investor Delta Air Lines. Company executives talked at length about the blueprint during a presentation Thursday afternoon.

ElevateOS comprises three main applications—a core operations system that manages landing pad access, maintenance scheduling, and more, pilot app, and mobile-first rider app. A fourth component, which Joby describes as “an intelligent matching engine,” connects passengers to aircraft and takeoff and landing sites, akin to existing ride-hailing services.

Within the pilot app are tools that enable pre and postflight checks, ensure pilots are getting enough rest, and provide information on aircraft weight and balance through an integration with the rider app. The latter platform is intended to function much like the Uber app for riders, with which ElevateOS will actually have an integration at launch. Joby riders will be able to book on the Uber platform and vice versa.

“The air taxi service we plan to deliver isn’t like any sort of air travel that’s existed before,” said Eric Allison, the former head of Uber air taxi arm Elevate who now serves as chief product officer for Joby. The manufacturer acquired Uber Elevate in 2021. Allison also previously served as CEO of Zee.Aero—which would eventually become Boeing’s air taxi arm, Wisk Aero—for eight years.

“We expect travelers to book on-demand and to be boarding an aircraft just minutes later, much like the experience of using ground-based ridesharing today,” Allison added. “That required us to totally rethink the software and the operations of these aircraft.”

Elevate, which ran the short-lived Uber Copter service, failed, Allison said, because the software platform required for such a service did not yet exist. He and others who migrated to Joby developed ElevateOS from the ground up with the goal of bringing an on-demand service to the aerial realm, where scheduled flights are king.

According to Allison, the four key components of ElevateOS work in concert, communicating between one another to ensure operators, pilots, and other team members are on the same page. Each portion was built on the same platform in the same language, a strategy he compared to Amazon’s launch of Prime delivery services.

Leveraging the FAA Part 135 permissions it was awarded in May 2022, Joby already has put ElevateOS through two years of real-world testing.

Using a Cirrus SR22, which like its flagship air taxi is designed for a pilot to fly as many as four passengers, the company has been running an internal shuttle service for its team members through an early version of the rider app. Employees select a desired time, origin, and destination and are autonomously matched with other riders.

The app already handles payments for whole-aircraft flights, which has allowed Joby to offer charter services to some external customers as well. Additionally, the firm says it has integrated both the pilot and rider app with its backend software. By October of last year, all three main components were working in tandem and simulating real-world operations.

Now, Joby has the FAA’s sign-off to deploy these tools for commercial service when the time comes. The firm intends to use ElevateOS in its own operations, but it will also offer it to certain customers who purchase aircraft as part of a wider service package.

The Preflight Checklist

Joby on Thursday updated investors on its progress toward a commercial launch in a presentation that revealed the company’s completed and pending objectives. The so-called preflight checklist covers the company’s service, safety procedures, pilots, operating systems, and maintenance.

Much of the company’s certification work with the FAA will transfer to those international markets, Joby president of operations Bonny Simi said, through bilateral agreements with other regulators. The firm intends to offer pilot training, maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), safety systems, and other services wherever it flies, bundling some of these into an offering for customers as well.

Having earlier this year received the first set of FAA final airworthiness criteria for an eVTOL design and acquired autonomous flight developer Xwing, Joby is making steady progress on the development of its aircraft itself. The next step will be adding it to the company’s Part 135 certificate, a process Simi said has already begun.

Understanding that it cannot simply drop its air taxi into the existing airspace system and expect success, Joby is now in the process of building a new ecosystem for its flagship design.

ElevateOS checks several boxes. But the biggest area of need, according to the preflight checklist, is pilots. Currently, no FAA-certified eVTOL, or powered-lift, pilots exist. The agency is in the process of developing training and certification requirements for these pilots, which Joby is using to design an internal training course.

The company aims to develop an FAA-approved program comprising Part 141 pilot school certification, Part 142 training organization approval, and Level 3 full flight simulators qualified under Part 60.

It says it has already developed an aircraft-specific course to train qualified commercial pilots to fly its air taxi. The program was borne out of a partnership with Canadian flight simulator developer CAE, which in 2022 agreed to build immersive eVTOL training simulators for Joby. 

These full-motion, six-axis simulators, capable of mimicking the eVTOL flight envelope, will be used in training, a requirement for companies building a single-pilot air taxi. Joby says it has already begun the multiyear development and approval process, performing hundreds of tests, comparing simulator and aircraft data, and working closely with the FAA. It believes it is on track to certify the device before its U.S. launch. A modified version of the simulator will be used to train pilots in the United Arab Emirates.

According to Joby, 10 Air Force pilots have now flown the aircraft through a full transition from hover to forward flight. It expects to be able to train a commercial airline pilot to fly the air taxi in about six weeks. In the early years of operations, the aircraft will likely be staffed by pilots with experience flying for airlines or the military, and who would prefer to live and work in the same region.

Already, the company has begun private pilot training and ground school to help new pilots to obtain an initial rating, which could then be used to add powered-lift permissions. It says it is on the way to certifying a Part 141 training academy. Additionally, should Joby secure Part 142 approval, it could sell training as a service to customers.

On the maintenance side, Joby is using its recently acquired FAA Part 145 certificate to design a comprehensive MRO network for itself and its customers. In designing its aircraft with systems such as direct drive motors, the company’s goal is to reduce maintenance costs and increase aircraft availability compared to helicopters. It intends to use predictive maintenance planning, tracking the wear and tear of components to preempt any issues that would sideline the aircraft.

The company is in the process of establishing MRO services in Dubai and has already completed some MRO work in advance of operations. The goal is to one day add that capability to its entire fleet to keep operations around the globe humming. A $1 million FAA grant, intended to help Joby design one of the first training programs for eVTOL mechanics, will aid those efforts.

Another dimension Joby is concerned with is safety, which Allison called “the North Star of everything we do.”

In January, the FAA announced that a Part 5-approved Safety Management System (SMS), previously a voluntary measure, would be required for all Part 135 air operators. Simi described the SMS as an organization-wide approach to managing risk. Joby in 2023 became the first eVTOL company to get an SMS approved by the FAA and is in the process of implementing it across all operations, from manufacturing to training to MRO. It is also working to incorporate an SMS for original equipment manufacturers, another new requirement.

Joby expects to achieve type certification in the coming months prior to a planned launch in New York and Los Angeles with partners Delta and Uber, which according to Simi is the first phase of the company’s commercial rollout. Following that, it will ramp up to missions with the U.S. Department of Defense and expand to overseas markets such as the UAE, where it has a six-year agreement to operate an air taxi service in Dubai. It also plans to sell aircraft to Mukamalah, the aviation arm of Saudi Aramco.

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According to the space agency, “several” eVTOL companies are deploying a NASA computer program to model their future operations and the noise they will produce. The program, called Overflow, was developed in the 1990s. But NASA tells FLYING it has made “significant improvements” to its code to improve its usefulness for the industry. The code is publicly available for download.

Manufacturers developing technology related to NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Mission—which explores passenger transport, cargo delivery, public service, and other applications for eVTOL designs—are being granted an early look at how their propellers, wings, and other components may perform in action.

Per the agency, the technology can save these manufacturers time and money when making decisions related to aircraft design.

Overflow is a NASA-developed computer software tool that predicts aircraft noise and aerodynamic performance. Using a series of calculations, the program models the flow of air around an aircraft, anticipating the pressures, forces, moments, and power requirements it might produce.

Users can integrate the Overflow code into their own aircraft modeling programs to measure performance and efficiency. They receive a visual depiction of how air behaves on or around the aircraft, represented by different colors. A high pressure coefficient, for example, might be shown in red, while a lower coefficient is represented by blue.

As NASA points out, fluid flows are one of the culprits of aircraft noise. Understanding how those flows interact with the airframe can help engineers make design decisions that keep volume in check.

Supporters and detractors of eVTOL air taxis consider noise pollution a chief concern, particularly when operations take place over an urban area such as a city. Manufacturers such as Archer and Joby—whose designs combine movable propellers with fixed wings—contend their designs will be quieter than helicopters.

According to images shared by NASA, Archer and Joby each have given Overflow a try. Notably, both companies have a prior relationship with the agency.

Joby in December collaborated with NASA and a recruited cohort of air traffic controllers to model air taxi operations around a busy airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International (KDFW). Air taxi pilots “flew” on predetermined routes in various simulated weather conditions, evaluating traffic schedules developed by Joby based on the manufacturer’s demand projections.

The partners successfully simulated 120 eVTOL arrivals and departures alongside existing airport traffic. According to NASA, certain air traffic control procedures evaluated could be applied and scaled at airports nationwide to accommodate eVTOL aircraft.

Archer, meanwhile, continues to collaborate with NASA on a battery testing partnership. The partners are evaluating the manufacturer’s proprietary batteries to gauge how they could safely be applied to eVTOL aircraft, eCTOL aircraft such as Beta Technologies’ CX300, and potentially even spacecraft. Archer last month completed a critical battery pack drop test, intended to assess the batteries’ resistance to leaks or fires in the event of a crash.

In addition to Archer and Joby, Wisk Aero, the eVTOL air taxi subsidiary of Boeing, appears to be using Overflow as NASA shared an image of what looks to be the company’s Generation 6 aircraft. Archer, Joby, and Wisk are among the top U.S. firms in the AAM industry.

NASA—which is also working with the U.S. Air Force to build a nationwide AAM operations center—the Department of Defense, and FAA have each emphasized growing the country’s emerging aircraft technology in a bid to foster the domestic AAM industry. U.S. agencies and representatives have sounded the alarm on manufacturers in China in particular, fearing that a wave of cheap, mass-produced Chinese aircraft could shut out American competitors.

Those fears may not be entirely unfounded, given that Chinese air taxi manufacturer EHang just received approval from the country’s civil aviation authority (CAAC) to begin mass production. Recently, the company revealed its self-flying eVTOL will have a price tag of just $330,000. Few eVTOL manufacturers are public about the cost of their aircraft, but internal projections typically have been in the millions—not the hundreds of thousands.

Having obtained production, type, and standard airworthiness certification for its flagship EH216-S, EHang is the only eVTOL manufacturer with all three approvals. In the U.S., Archer and Joby are the furthest along, targeting type certification before their expected commercial launches in 2025.

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The fix—which corrects an issue in the flight control system’s angle of attack limiting mode—had been signed off by the FAA on Monday, with validation approved by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on Tuesday afternoon.

The G500 and G600 fleet had been issued a wind limitation of 15 knots on landing, with a maximum allowable gust factor of 5 knots while the OEM worked on the corrective update.

A Hard Landing

The most recent restrictions had been prompted by a hard landing reported by a G500 in an unspecified location earlier this year, in which the activation of the mode during landing prevented the pilot from having full pitch authority. The result: The pilot was unable to arrest the descent rate properly.

“Initial data analysis of the event indicates the aircraft flight-control system entered Angle of Attack (AOA) Limiting Mode at approximately 12 feet above ground level following a series of large, rapidly alternating pitch stick inputs,” said Gulfstream in a “maintenance and operations” letter delivered on April 29 to its customers.

In addition, Gulfstream advised the following operations:

• Minimum approach speed during all approaches should be reference speed plus 10 knots.
• Use of autothrottle for approach and landing during normal operations.

The flight manual change was an intermediate step until the software update to modify the AOA limiting mode could be completed and approved.

• READ MORE: Gulfstream Gives Preview of First Fully Conforming G700

Delayed Deliveries, G700 Program

Gulfstream has fielded more than 170 G500s and G600s to date, and the required fix put a pause on further shipments until the update was approved. Those aircraft on hold have been “preloaded” so as to expedite the update once it was approved.

Because the work involved certain members of the G700 development team, the effort had an impact on that model’s certification program, resulting in a delay of three to six months for first deliveries. Gulfstream first reported this delay via the most recent General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) earnings call in July.

“The aircraft has performed well through all of the testing we’ve been doing in all of the outcomes,” said Haas of the G500 used for the update. “We also felt that we wanted to make this as seamless as possible for our customers, and so for several weeks we’ve been planning, and trying to work through a way for the customers to be able to make it as simple as possible to get the software installed.” 

• READ MORE: G800 Makes First Atlantic Crossing–to FIA22

The first customer update will take place in Fort Smith, Arkansas, at the company’s service facility there, and it was expected to be completed by the end of the day Tuesday. Updates will also take place in Basel, Switzerland; and Singapore. Gulfstream expects to have 90 percent of the fleet in service with the update by the end of September.

The post Gulfstream Gets FAA, EASA Signoff on Software Fix for G500 and G600 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Sporty’s Pilot Shop is providing the means to do all these things with its new CFI portal. It’s part of Sporty’s 2022 pilot training platform and is free to active flight instructors.

The portal includes:

• Lesson plans
• A flight instructor refresher course
• A completed FAA library
• Access to Sporty’s pilot training courses 

The program builds on the popularity of the company’s home-study courses while simultaneously helping instructors and students stay engaged in the learning process.

According to Sporty’s Academy chief instructor Eric Radtke, “We designed the CFI portal as a platform to manage and organize learners, monitor progress, and give instructors access to the tools and resources to help in their teaching activity.”

The Way it Works

After signing up, flight instructors are able to monitor the progress of their learners in Sporty’s pilot training courses, including video segments and test prep sessions. The program is designed to make it easy to review questions that were missed during a ground lesson. The CFI can also watch the entire course to stay in sync with the learners on key topics. 

There is also an option for flight schools to create classrooms, send out bulk invites to potential learners and export a roster to a .csv file.

The program includes a syllabus providing structure to help keep the learners on track, while ground lesson guides and maneuver guides make each lesson more productive. 

Also included is Sporty’s guide to FAA endorsements, with templates for the most common endorsements, including first solo, check rides, and proficiency endorsements.

The Needs of the CFI

The Sporty’s CFI portal comes with special offers for CFIs and includes a complete flight instructor refresher course. This eFIRC meets the requirements to renew a CFI certificate while simultaneously offering practical tips for improving teaching skills. The eFIRC contains 17 lessons divided into learning modules. 

Flight instructors also have electronic access to the latest editions of the Airplane Flying Handbook, Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Aeronautical Information Manual, and other FAA produced essential materials.

Each document is indexed and includes search and annotation options to make it easier to find reference materials. Instructors also upload their own documents, such as operating procedures for the school or FBO, or aircraft checklists.

The post Sporty’s Launches CFI Portal appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The deal, which was announced at the annual Dubai Air Show in the United Arab Emirates, provides the Dubai-based airline additional software programs aimed at cutting carbon emissions and fuel costs by managing consumption.

Emirates has agreed to implement GE Digital’s FlightPulse pre-flight module, which provides aggregated data from across the airline’s operation to help pilots with better fuel decisions and more effective departure briefings.

Emirates will be the first GE Digital customer to adopt the software’s new animation capabilities.

Emirates has already been using GE Digital’s FlightPulse post-flight module, which provides secure access to data from a pilot’s individual flight history, allowing them to analyze their flight performance and find areas to optimize operations and efficiency.

The airline also has agreed to use GE Digital’s Fuel Insight, which is a fuel consumption and emissions reduction solution that works by understanding real data from the aircraft and airline.

Although the world’s aviation industry only creates about 3 percent of global carbon emissions, the announcement comes amid an industrywide movement to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Sustainability is core to the future of the aviation industry, net zero by 2050 is the target, and while new technologies are the key to achieving that in the long term, we cannot afford to wait until then,” said Andrew Coleman, general manager of GE Digital’s aviation software business in a statement. “We have the data and solutions that can help the industry make strides toward net zero today, by leveraging data that already exists.”

Why This Matters

In just one year, GE Digital’s FlightPulse helped a global airline reduce carbon emissions by 5.71M kg —an amount equal to eliminating emissions from more than 1,200 passenger cars, according to GE Digital.

Emirates flies large aircraft on long-haul routes where fuel saving software could save significant costs and emissions.

While many carriers have been phasing out four-engine airliners from their fleets, Emirates continues to fly the world’s largest airliner, the Airbus A380, which burns about 10 gallons of fuel per nautical mile, depending on various factors. Emirates also flies A380s on some of the longest routes. From its main hub in Dubai, Emirates flies A380s to Auckland (NZAA), as well as Dallas (KDFW) and Los Angeles (KLAX).

“Operating modern and fuel efficient aircraft has been central to our business model since the airline’s inception,” said a statement by Capt. Hassan AlHammadi, Emirates’ divisional senior vice president of flight operations. “We are fully engaged in an ongoing investment to reduce our environmental impact and these solutions will help us to achieve our goals. We want to empower our pilots with state-of-the-art tools and technology to help them operate flights in a safe and efficient way.”

The new module to FlightPulse will be powered by Applied Informatics and Research Inc.’s FAS software system, the GE Digital statement said.

The post GE Digital Announces Emirates Deal on Sustainability Software appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Travelers weary of taxiway logjams, long airline delays, and unexpected flight cancellations can soon expect relief, thanks to rocket science.

A NASA pilot software program aimed at improving airline predictability and efficiencies while also reducing aircraft carbon emissions will soon be pushed out to 27 hub airports around the U.S., federal aviation officials said Tuesday.

NASA partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to test the Integrated Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) management system technologies through a demonstration project deployed at three hub airports: Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, Dallas Love Field Airport and Dallas Fort Worth International.

“It came from the strategy of figuring out for space, the trajectories to get where you wanted out in space, to other planets,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “The idea behind this was simple: take that technology and apply it to an aircraft when they are pushing back from the gate, taxing to the runway, take off and reaching cruising altitude without stopping.”

Streamlining operations, from pushing back at the gate to continuous ascent, is efficient.

“You’re going to take off and you’re not going to stair-step up. You’re going to constantly go up to your flight elevation,” Nelson said. Doing so saves time, time of use of the aircraft and flight crew, and reduces aircraft maintenance demands, he added.

At Charlotte-Douglas International, for example, the reduced taxi times under the technology test saved more than 275,000 gallons of fuel annually, cut out 8 tons of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions daily and slashed delays by 916 hours. Those reduced delays were the equivalent of making taxiway wait times 15 minutes shorter for more than 3,600 departing flights, the FAA said.

“The future of flight must be more sustainable and environmentally friendly,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said. “This new capability as part of a flight merging system has a double benefit: It reduces aircraft emissions while, at the same time, air travelers experience more on-time departures.”

The new technology takes information, such as airline flight schedules, that previously existed in silos and integrates it for a common near real-time view, said Pamela Whitley, FAA Assistant Administrator for NextGen.

“What we will get out of this system is modernization of air traffic control tower equipment and streamlining capability for the flow between arrival and departure aircraft,” Whitley said. “We’ll see fuel savings and reduced emissions, and basically an optimization of the experience for the traveling public.”

The IADS technology is set to be included in FAA’s Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) program, which will deploy at 89 airports next year to support surface management.

More advanced IADS capabilities, such as those demonstrated during the test program, will be rolled out at 27 of the busiest airports in the country.

According to the FAA, those airports include:

• Atlanta
• Baltimore
• Boston
• Charlotte
• Chicago Midway
• Chicago O’Hare
• Dallas-Ft. Worth
• Denver
• Detroit
• Fort Lauderdale
• Houston Bush
• Las Vegas
• Miami
• Minneapolis
• Newark
• New York JFK
• New York LaGuardia
• Orlando
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• Salt Lake City
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington Dulles
• Washington Reagan National

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