Formula 1 is expanding its investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) through a new program developed with Global Partner Qatar Airways. The expansion builds upon the previously announced investment alongside Global Logistics Partner DHL, and creates a broader framework for F1 teams and the FIA to participate. In total, the... Read more →

Wright has finished final assembly of its second-generation megawatt-class motor, WM2500, built with support from DOE ARPA-E and NASA. WM2500 is a 2.5 MW (3,300+ horsepower) electric aircraft engine targeted for industry-leading power and power density. It is designed to replace the engine core of a jet engine, enabling current... Read more →

Earlier this month, the University of Notre Dame marked the successful opening of a Large Mach 10 Quiet Wind Tunnel, the first and only facility of its kind in the world. The facility supplies a unique environment for exploring hypersonic flight dynamics, turbulence, flight control, and propulsion. Designed for high-quality... Read more →

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have produced kerosene-range fuels from C2-4 olefins and mixtures thereof via (co–)oligomerization. An open-access paper on their study is published in the journal Fuel. —Fuchs et al. A very promising pathway [for the production of SAF] is the methanol- or dimethyl ether... Read more →

Japan-based eVTOL manufacturer SkyDrive and Greenville Downtown Airport,South Carolina’s busiest general aviation hub, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) jointly to develop innovative business opportunities utilizing the SKYDRIVE eVTOL aircraft. The collaboration will focus on advancing air-cargo, air-taxi, and emergency service use cases, paving the way for a new era... Read more →

Global pure-play agriculture company Corteva Inc. announced a collaboration with bp on the companies’ shared intent to form a crop-based biofuel feedstock joint venture (JV). The JV envisaged by Corteva and bp would produce and deliver crop-based biofuel feedstocks to help meet the anticipated growth in demand for sustainable aviation... Read more →

Topsoe has signed an agreement with Refinaria de Petróleo Riograndense SA (Riograndense), to provide its HydroFlex and H2bridge technologies for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel production at Riograndense’s Rio Grande renewable fuels plant in Brazil. The production addresses the rapidly growing demand for SAF. As cited by the... Read more →

Neste and Air Canada have signed an agreement for the supply of 60,000 metric tons (77.6 million liters) of neat Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Neste will deliver the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) blended with conventional jet fuel to the Vancouver marine terminal starting in December 2024, with further shipments... Read more →

SAE International and EUROCAE jointly announced the publication of “Hydrogen Fueling Stations for Airports, in Both Gaseous and Liquid Form.” These documents serve as the first worldwide hydrogen station guidelines for the aerospace industry. SAE AIR8466, developed in collaboration with EUROCAE’s ER034, provides the first step in defining performance targets... Read more →

The carbon footprint from private jet travel grew 46% between 2019 and 2023 according to a new open-access study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The European research team calculated the sector’s CO2 emissions using flight tracker data from the ADS-B Exchange platform for the period 2019 to 2023. Flight... Read more →

Archer Aviation and Soracle Corporation—a joint venture newly established by Japan Airlines and Sumitomo Corporation—signed agreements focused on bringing advanced air mobility (AAM) services to Japan. Soracle plans to launch its AAM operation in Japan using Archer’s Midnight aircraft, with the goal of offering electric air taxi flights in cities... Read more →

Toyota Moto and Joby Aviation came together at Toyota’s Higashi-Fuji Technical Center (Shizuoka, Japan) to assert their collective passion and ambition for air mobility in a gathering that included executives from both companies, Akio Toyoda, the chairman of the Toyota Group, and Joby CEO and founder, JoeBen Bevirt, along with... Read more →

California has reached an agreement with the nation’s leading passenger and cargo airlines to accelerate the use of sustainable aviation fuel for flights within the state. In an announcement made today at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Airlines for America (A4A), an industry... Read more →

PowerCell Group has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ZeroAvia to collaborate on next-generation fuel cell technologies. The partners are to explore co-development of fuel cell technologies for aerospace applications and other segments in need of heavy-duty fuel cell systems with high energy output. Joint R&D will focus... Read more →

Avfuel Corporation is expanding blended Sustainable Aviation Fuel (having target percentages of 30% neat SAF and 70% conventional jet fuel) (SAF) across the southeastern United States supplied from Valero Marketing and Supply Company (Valero), a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corporation. The supply agreement with Valero significantly increases Avfuel’s volume and... Read more →

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a final rule for the qualifications and training that instructors and pilots must have to fly aircraft in the “powered-lift” category—the first completely new category of civil aircraft since helicopters were introduced in the 1940s. Powered lift operations include air taxis, cargo delivery and... Read more →

The US Space Force is providing $35 million to a national research team led by the University of Michigan. It will be the first to bring fast chemical rockets together with efficient electric propulsion powered by a nuclear microreactor. The newly formed Space Power and Propulsion for Agility, Responsiveness and... Read more →

Calumet, Inc. announced that the US Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has awarded a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.44 billion to fund the construction and expansion of a renewable fuels facility owned by Montana Renewables, LLC. Montana Renewables is an unrestricted subsidiary... Read more →

Airbus UpNext, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus, and Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation, Toshiba Group’s energy arm, will cooperate on superconducting technologies for future hydrogen-powered aircraft. The partners aim to co-develop a two-megawatt superconducting motor. In the quest to decarbonize the aviation industry, hydrogen-powered aircraft represent a possible solution... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced a conditional commitment for a $1.46-billion loan guarantee to Gevo Net-Zero 1, LLC (Gevo NZ-1), excluding capitalized interest during construction, to help finance a large-scale corn starch-to-jet fuel facility in Lake Preston, South Dakota. The facility—the first of its... Read more →

LanzaTech, a company focused on carbon recycling to create sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials, recently signed a Master License Agreement with Sekisui Chemical to implement a jointly developed platform that converts syngas from municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial solid waste into ethanol at a commercial scale. Sekisui plans to... Read more →

PowerCell Group has signed an agreement with an Australian aviation company for a concept study for a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft with minimal emissions. The study includes an order of SEK 7 million (US$680,000) of engineering work for the specification; the customer aims to build prototypes that will... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation and Joby Aviation, Inc. announced that Toyota will invest an additional $500 million to support the certification and commercial production of Joby’s electric air taxi, with the aim of realizing the two companies’ shared vision of air mobility. The investment, which will be made in two equal... Read more →

A new study from Juniper Research found that global Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) revenue will reach $6 billion by 2030, up from just $31 million in 2025—a compound annual growth rate of 187%. AAM is the creation of new aviation technologies that enable small scale flights across short distances; often... Read more →

Neste, ITOCHU and GS Caltex have collaborated to make the first batch of CORSIA-eligible ISCC-certified sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) available for purchase at Narita International Airport in Japan. This is the first time that CORSIA-certified SAF was made available for airlines’ regular purchase at commercial scale, well ahead of the... Read more →

MTU Aero Engines successfully completed multi-week testing of a liquid hydrogen fuel system for its Flying Fuel Cell (FFC). The tests showed that the system architecture is safe, reliable, and works as expected, and can ensure a regulated, need-based supply of preconditioned hydrogen to the fuel cell, said Barnaby Law,... Read more →

AIR COMPANY, a carbon conversion technology company, has raised $69 million in Series B funding to advance its technology, promote energy security, and drive emissions reductions in hard-to-abate sectors, such as aviation. Avfuel, a leading global supplier of aviation fuel and services, led the round and will be the preferred... Read more →

Twelve, the carbon transformation company that converts captured carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals, fuels, and other essential products typically made from fossil fuels, announced $645 million in funding. This raise is a strategic mix of capital which includes $400 million in project equity led by TPG Rise Climate, $200 million... Read more →

Swedish hybrid-electric airplane maker Heart Aerospace unveiled its first full-scale demonstrator airplane, marking a major milestone in the development of its regional hybrid-electric aircraft, the ES-30. Built almost entirely in-house at Heart’s Gothenburg facilities, the demonstrator reflects the company’s strategy to develop the design and production processes simultaneously. With a... Read more →

Gevo, a developer of net-zero hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the ethanol production plant and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) assets of Red Trail Energy for $210 million. The Adjusted EBITDA from Red Trail Energy ethanol and CCS assets, when combined with Adjusted EBITDA... Read more →

An interagency team led by the US Department of Energy (DOE), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and US Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge: Metrics Dashboard Fact Sheet. The Metrics Dashboard Fact Sheet summarizes actions and progress to help... Read more →

Britten-Norman is introducing the Unleaded Fuel Modification for its BN2B-26 piston engine (Lycoming O-540-E4C5) Islander aircraft. The three Lycoming-approved unleaded fuel specifications being included in this modification are ASTM D7547 (UL 91 & UL 94), DEF-STAN 91-090 (UL 91), and HJELMCO (91/96 UL). In addition to reducing their environmental impact,... Read more →

Although the electric airplane market is in its infancy, it is off to a surprisingly strong start, according to IDTechEx. To the best of IDTechEx's knowledge, there is only one example of an electric airplane for sale today: the Pipistrel Velis Electro. From IDTechEx's perspective, it has had a stellar... Read more →

SAFFiRE Renewables Fuel broke ground on a pilot plant that represents a firm step toward meeting the goals of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge. The SAFFiRE plant, located at Conestoga Energy’s Arkalon Energy facility in Liberal, Kansas, will ultimately be capable of processing 10 tons of corn stover... Read more →

A new consortium led by aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel, a Textron Inc. company, in partnership with Honeywell International, Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR), Fraunhofer Society, as well as University of Stuttgart and Delft University of Technology has been formed around a new initiative called HyPoTraDe. HyPoTraDe is focused on the development and... Read more →

Lilium has successfully completed the first phase of integration testing of the Lilium Jet’s electrical power system at the company’s purpose-built laboratory. The test completion represents a key milestone on the path to flight conditions approval and type-certification of the revolutionary Lilium Jet. It means that, while the first two... Read more →

LanzaTech Global and LanzaJet, Inc., a leading sustainable fuels technology company and fuels producer, announced a new project with Australia’s Wagner Sustainable Fuels to evaluate equipping Wagner’s Brisbane SAF Refinery with the CirculAir platform. The CirculAir platform is LanzaTech and LanzaJet’s joint technology solution that converts waste carbon and renewable... Read more →

KULR Technology Group, a developer of safe and high-performance energy storage solutions, has been selected for a battery pack reference design project by Amprius Technologies, a developer of next-generation lithium-ion batteries with its Silicon Anode Platform. The final reference design will provide Amprius’ customers with a solution to address thermal... Read more →

Unither Bioelectronics Inc. (UB), a subsidiary of United Therapeutics Corporation, and Robinson Helicopter Company have entered into a collaboration agreement to accelerate UB’s development of hydrogen-powered helicopters based on Robinson’s popular R44 and R66 helicopter models. This strategic collaboration is expected to accelerate the development of zero-emission helicopters and increase... Read more →

Wright Electric was awarded $3,342,094 for its new Ultra-High-Energy Battery Project to research & develop a new class of batteries for zero-emission electric passenger aircraft. The funding was awarded through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Fueling Aviation’s Sustainable Transition (FAST) grant program, funded via the Inflation Reduction Act. Wright is... Read more →

OXCCU, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford developing novel catalysts and reactor designs to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons with high conversion and selectivity for use as fuels, chemicals and plastics (earlier post), has launched its first official demonstration plant, OX1, at Oxford Airport. Through its... Read more →

DG Fuels, a US-owned sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) company, in cooperation with the Nebraska BioEconomy, has selected Phelps County, Nebraska, for its first Midwest production facility. The plant will produce 193 million gallons of zero- or low-CO2 lifecycle emissions SAF per year and meet ASTM fuel standards. Production is expected... Read more →

Archer Aviation has delivered its first Midnight aircraft to the USAF to evaluate as part of its AFWERX Agility Prime contract valued at up to $142 million. The delivery comes after the US Department of Defense accepted Midnight’s military airworthiness assessment, a critical approval that confirms Midnight’s readiness for flight... Read more →

Topsoe signed an agreement with HOLBORN Europa Raffinerie GmbH to provide its HydroFlex technology for the production of SAF and renewable diesel at its plant in Hamburg. HOLBORN is a successful oil refinery that supplies Hamburg and northern Germany with fuels and heating oil. The production will serve to address... Read more →

Archer and Future Flight Global signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the planned purchase of up to 116 Midnight Aircraft worth up to $580 million Along with this MOU, Future Flight Global made an initial deposit, and the MOU sets out nearly $5 million in pre-delivery payments to be... Read more →

Wright Electric has been awarded a contract from the US Air Force to develop high power output rechargeable batteries. Wright Electric was founded in 2016 to build electric airplanes with the goal of reducing the climate impact of the aerospace industry. The company is developing ultra-lightweight motors and batteries for... Read more →

AutoFlight and leading battery developer CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) announced an exclusive strategic investment and cooperation agreement, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, bringing together pioneers in eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) and battery technology in a unique partnership. CATL’s exclusive strategic investment in AutoFlight... Read more →

The “Climate Impulse” project aims to showcase how efficient solutions can set the world on a sustainable course. As part of this project, high-tech engineering specialist 49SUD is responsible for the design and manufacture of an aircraft, which—powered by green hydrogen—is set to circumnavigate the globe in a historic maiden... Read more →

Sora Fuel, a startup producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using only water, air and renewable energy, raised an oversubscribed $6 million seed round. The Engine Ventures led the round, with Wireframe Ventures and others participating. The funding will be used to expand Sora Fuel’s Boston-based team, develop commercialization partnerships and... Read more →

Neste will provide up to 1 million gallons (3,000 metric tons) of Neste MY Sustainable Aviation Fuel to United Airlines for use at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in the US through the end of 2024. This expansion of the existing partnership between the two companies enables United to become... Read more →