Vertiflite May/June 2021

THE VERTICAL FLIGHT SOCIETY Electric VTOL News

Joby Lauded and Plans to Deliver

his computer activities shortly before leaving for Archer.” Wisk also noted the similarity of Archer’s design to the company’s own 2020 patent application. Archer denied the allegations that it had used Wisk’s intellectual property in developing its Maker eVTOL design. “It’s regrettable that Wisk would engage in litigation in an attempt to deflect from the business issues that have caused several of its employees to depart. The plaintiff raised these matters over a year ago and, after looking into them thoroughly, we have no reason to believe any proprietary Wisk technology ever made its way to Archer.” Archer stated that it is cooperating with the authorities, noting that it had placed an employee on paid administrative leave in connection with the federal investigation. It said that a search warrant issued to the employee was “focused on conduct prior to the employee joining the company,” but that Archer “and three other Archer employees with whom the individual worked also have received subpoenas relating to this investigation.” Pipistrel to Deliver in China Ajdovš č ina, Slovenia-based Pipistrel announced on April 12 that it had partnered with SF Express, one of China’s leading integrated logistics providers, to develop a hybrid-electric eVTOL cargo aircraft, apparently based on Pipistrel’s Nuuva V300 unmanned cargo aircraft that it announced last year. The aircraft is designed to deliver 660 lb (300 kg) of cargo in a 81 ft ³ (2.3 m ³ ) volume space over a range of 310 miles (500 km) with cruising altitudes up to 19,700 ft (6,000 m) and VTOL capability up to 8,200 ft (2,500 m) above sea level. SF Express subsidiary, Munich-based Amazilia Aerospace, will provide the automatic flight control system and vehicle management system (AFCS/VMS), which “builds on years of research at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) reinforced with aerospace industry experience.” SF Express stated that it hopes to be operating the aircraft in 2023, and expects to need more than 1,000 VTOL logistics drones in the next 10 years to achieve its goal of 36-hour countrywide delivery throughout China. Honeywell provides the attitude heading reference system, air data module and fly-by-wire control system for the bespoke V300. XTI Aircraft Continues Developments On April 15, Denver, Colorado-based XTI Aircraft Company announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Enterprise Estonia, Estonian Aviation Cluster and the Estonian Aviation Academy (EAVA) to recognize Estonia as a regional mobility hub for the XTI TriFan 600 hybrid-electric eVTOL bizjet. According to the press release, “Estonia’s unique location in Europe means it could revolutionize regional connectivity by connecting hundreds of active airports and 100 million people inside a circle of 1,000 km [620 miles] by using advanced air mobility solutions such as the TriFan 600. Additionally, Estonia intends to become one of Europe’s climate neutral aviation

In March, Fast Company named Joby Aviation to its 2021 list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, and a Popular Science posting revealed the first clear photo of Joby’s first-generation S4 air taxi technology demonstrator (shown). The photo of the unmanned S4 1.0 is dated Sept. 13, 2017, likely the aircraft’s first full conversion to wingborne flight, following its first hover flight in April 2017 (see “The First Electric VTOL Unicorn: Joby Aviation,” Vertiflite , March/April 2020). To date, the company has made more than 1,000 test flights of its demonstrators. On an April 14 webinar by IPO Edge, Joby executive chairman Paul Sciarra said that its US Air Force Agility Prime Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Plus contract last year was for Joby to deliver two aircraft to the Air Force in 2021. If awarded a Phase III extension, Joby could deliver 10–30 aircraft for on-base operations.

Wisk Sues Archer

On April 6, Wisk Aero filed a lawsuit against Archer Aviation, alleging theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. In its investor briefing in March, Archer highlighted that it had hired away a significant number of engineers from Wisk’s Cora development team (and Airbus’s Vahana program). Among other allegations, Wisk stated in a blog post, “We discovered that one of those engineers downloaded thousands of Wisk files near midnight, shortly before he announced his resignation and immediately departed to Archer. Those files contain our valuable trade secrets and confidential information about Wisk’s aircraft development spanning the history of the company, accumulated over countless hours of incremental progress by scores of engineers. Another engineer downloaded numerous files containing test data just before departing for Archer. Yet another wiped any trace of

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