Apple engineers jumping ship to enter the eVTOL bandwagon?

Prashant-prabhakar

11 Dec 2021

Apple attracts some of the best engineers in their field of expertise and it is a given. The company is known for its competitive salaries and attractive perks-according to Glassdoor an average software engineer at Apple earns more than $141,000 per year, in addition to bonuses.

Gizmodo

So what is it about the small, electric-powered rotorcraft industry, that's luring them away?

The eVTOL industry is still in its nascent stages and has a long way to go. With the advent of ever-evolving electric propulsion, various entities have come forward with numerous innovative models of eVTOL aircraft, although most are yet to be type-certified by the FAA.

Apparently, these firms appear to offer more money and better perks to the new hires.

Michael Schwekutsch, amongst many other key engineers, has left the iconic IT behemoth to join the evolving industry of electrical, vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

He has moved on to join Archer Aviation, as the new senior vice president of engineering, specializing in propulsion, HV, and battery systems.

Dr. Michael Schwekutsch | Gamingsym

Archer's flying taxi 'Maker" debuts in eVTOL market | Reuters

We’re looking to build the No. 1 electric powertrain team in the worldArcher co-founder and co-CEO Brett Adcock in a recent LinkedIn post

The director of flight control systems at Archer is headed by Sergio Ferreir, who led flight control systems development at Gulfstream for its G650 business jet and other aircraft.

Stephen Spiteri, Eric Rogers, and Alex Clarabut are some of the other engineers to have quit the company and join eVTOL makers, {courtesy of their LinkedIn profile(s).}

Apparently, this is a very crucial time for Archer, as the company is very close to flight testing its prototype aircraft, "Maker". It is touted to enter service by 2024 and expects to conduct hover test trials sometime this month.

Joby Aviation is yet another eVTOL company based in Silicon Valley, that's hiring engineers from Apple.The company flew its model for 150 miles on a single battery charge earlier this year and expects to have it certified by 2023.

Joby Aviation CEO Joeben Bevirt | CNBC

The programs and systems engineering at Joby's is headed by Didier Papadopoulos, who previously designed the Autoland system for in-flight emergencies at Garmin, subsequently winning an award for it.

Interestingly, both companies have been infused with hundreds of millions of dollars in investor capital, right after they went public with their companies.

In conclusion, much of the final success of these eVTOL companies will lie in how effectively these "key hires" from Apple and other tech companies will contribute to the overall product.

SOURCE: FlyingMag

COVER: AIRBUS

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American Airlines postpone Seattle-Bengaluru flight service

Radhika Bansal

11 Dec 2021

American Airlines is dropping some international flights from its plans for next summer because Boeing has failed to deliver planes that the airline ordered, according to an internal memo Thursday.

Boeing has been unable to deliver its 787 jetliner, which it calls the Dreamliner, for about a year because of a series of manufacturing problems.

The twin-aisle jet is popular with airlines for long flights because of its improved fuel efficiency over older planes of similar size.

The carrier has claimed that it is 13 aircraft behind on expected deliveries, having ordered a number of Boeing 787s in 2018.

American had expected 13 more Dreamliners in its fleet by this winter. Without those planes, “we simply won't be able to fly as much internationally as we had planned next summer, or as we did in summer 2019," Chief Revenue Officer Vasu Raja said in the memo to American's employees.

According to the memo, American won't fly to Edinburgh, Scotland; Shannon, Ireland; or Hong Kong next summer and won't bring back some destinations it served in 2019, including Prague.

It will also cut the number of flights it hoped to offer to destinations in Asia, including Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney and will delay starting new service including flights between Seattle and Bengaluru, India.

American “will do our best to minimize the damage these aircraft delivery delays have caused to our long-haul portfolio" while giving customers certainty about flights as they book summer travel, Raja said in the memo, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

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Centre to privatise 25 airports in next 3 years

Radhika Bansal

11 Dec 2021

Around 25 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports have been earmarked by the Centre for asset monetisation over the next three years under the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP).

These airports include Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Calicut, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna, Madurai, Surat, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Chennai, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhopal, Tirupati, Hubli, Imphal, Agartala, Udaipur, Dehradun and Rajahmundry.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation General Dr VK Singh announced this in Lok Sabha on Thursday, December 9 in a written reply after Member of Parliament Mimi Chakraborty asked whether the government proposes to privatise another 30-35 airports of the country in the next five years.

Singh said that the criteria adopted for the monetisation of airport assets under the NMP are for airports having annual traffic above the threshold of 0.4 million passengers (in FY 2019 and 2020) and also airports with a sizeable ongoing or proposed capital expenditure plan as per the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).

In August this year, the Centre said it was planning to raise approximately INR 20,782 crore till FY25 by monetising airports across the country.

Except for four airports out of 137 airports in the country, all continue to suffer losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the financial year 2020-21. These four are Kandala (0.11 crore), Kanpur Chakeri (6.07 crore), Bareilly (0.68 crores) and Porbandar (1.54 crores).

"Delhi and Mumbai airports suffered a huge loss of INR 317 crore and INR 331 crore respectively. Except for the few airports like Goa that has made a profit of Rs 146 crore in FY 2019-20 has suffered a huge loss of Rs 118 crore in FY 2020-21, most of the airports continued to suffer losses in the last three financial years," Singh added.

AAI owns 136 airports, out of which AAI has formed Joint Venture in seven. AAI has recently awarded six airports namely Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Mangaluru for Operations, Management and Development under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for 50 years.

The Adani Group had forayed into the airport's sector in 2019. In February the company signed the concession agreement for three airports, followed by Mangaluru airport in October, and Lucknow and Ahmedabad airports in November.

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Value of Air India's 'The Maharaja Collection' has not been estimated by the government yet

Radhika Bansal

10 Dec 2021

The Ministry of Civil Aviation confirmed on Thursday, December 9 that the government is yet to estimate the value of the much-revered "The Maharaja Collection" of Air India. However, the ministry did confirm that Air India's "The Maharaja Collection" has approximately 4,840 paintings and 2,390 other objects.

Presently, the Art and Artifacts of Air India are kept in the Air India Building in Mumbai under 24x7 CCTV surveillance, which is supervised by Air India security, noted VK Singh, minister of state, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, December 9.

Responding to a question on whether any artwork has been stolen, lost or damaged, Singh wrote, "One painting "Flying Apsara" was found stolen/misplaced, which was subsequently recovered and an FIR in the case was registered with Delhi Police."

He also added that according to Air India records, 19 paintings were destroyed in various fire incidents, two were scrapped, one was broken and a few were not traceable.

On October 8, the government had announced that Talace Private Limited -- a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons -- had won the bid to acquire debt-laden Air India. Tata had outbid a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh by offering INR 18,000 crore.

KH Ara

The government will hand over Air India to Tata Sons. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had stated on December 3 that the Air India transfer will be completed in the next 1 to 1.5 months.

However, the art collection is likely to stay with the government as it hands over the national carrier to Tata.

In October, it was reported that Air India's invaluable art collection was in the process of being transferred to the Ministry of Culture. News agency PTI had reported that the collection was to be displayed at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) after the airline's sale to the Tata Group.

"We have been trying to procure the Air India artefacts for some time. So, it's an ongoing process. Recently we had a meeting with officials of Air India," NGMA Director-General Adwaita Gadanayak had told the agency. "Now, the file (of the transfer) is with the Ministry of Culture and hopefully we will be able to get them and display them at NGMA," he added.

"The Maharaja Collection" of Air India includes works of legendary artists like M F Husain, Anjolie Ela Menon, Jatin Das, S H Raza, V S Gaitonde and K A Ara. Air India has stated that several of the paintings in the collection came under the airline's possession when the artists were not well-known among the masses. Some artists had also readily availed Air India's unique option of bartering their artwork for a flight ticket.

The art collection includes stone sculptures dating back to the ninth century, woodwork, decorative friezes and a collection of exquisite clocks. The clock collection includes a mantle clock in an ebonised break-arch wood case, which is said to have been made in London in 1845.

The man behind Air India's "The Maharaja Collection" is its former chairman JRD Tata. Due to his efforts, the artwork was displayed on the office walls of Air India in cities like Paris, London, Rome, Geneva and Cairo which provided a glimpse into the rich Indian culture to the visiting people.

In 2018, officials had told PTI that the preservation of the collection had been suffering due to the then uncertainty over the future of Air India.

(With Inputs from Business Today)

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India make rapid advancements in the field of aircraft manufacturing

Radhika Bansal

10 Dec 2021

India's civil aviation industry is moving from nascency towards the growth phase and progressing "very rapidly" in the area of aircraft manufacturing, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told Lok Sabha on Thursday, December 9.

Replying to a question from Trinamool Congress (TMC) member Saugata Roy, the minister also said that there is a plan to increase the number of airports from 138 to 220 in the next four to five years as building infrastructure in the aviation sector is crucial for the government.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Civil Aviation

"Civil aviation does not just consist of airline operations and airport operations, but also a whole ecosystem must develop. For that ecosystem to develop, the industry must go from nascency towards growth phase, which is where we are going," Scindia said during the Question Hour.

India has advanced towards manufacturing aircraft, he said, adding that "we are progressing very rapidly in the area of manufacturing of aircraft".

In his question, the TMC member had sought to know from the government if it has taken steps to increase aircraft manufacturing in India, noting that the country was still far behind in passenger aircraft manufacturing.

Tata Boeing Space Limited

"We have Boeing and Tata in a joint venture called Tata Boeing Space Limited, which is today manufacturing the Apache fuselage in India for not only operate within in India but internationally as well. They are being exported," the minister said.

While Airbus has "tied up" with the Tata Advance System to replace the AVRO aircraft of the Indian Air Force with Airbus C295, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has taken "very important steps" in the area of aircraft manufacturing, which includes manufacturing the Hindustan-228, the Indian version of the Dornier-228, he said.

"Six civilian aircraft are under production with our funding... We are also producing 19-seater light transport aircraft within India with CSR to give a new impetus to regional transport. The ALH-Dhruv (advanced light helicopter) is also being produced by HAL," Scindia added.

IAF's Airbus C295

Replying to a supplementary question asked by the TMC member, the minister said the 'Udaan' has been "a very successful" scheme in terms of viability gap funding to connect previously unconnected or under-connected locations.

"Under this scheme, we have not only provided connectivity between smaller cities and large metros but also built 63 airports, heliports and water aerodromes. We have almost doubled the number of airports in (last) seven years, growing from 74 airports, before 2014, to 138 airports today," he said.

"We plan to grow to 220 (airports) in next four to five years," he added. The minister said that building infrastructure in the aviation sector is "an imperative". "We will surely deliver on that," he added.

Specifying the government’s measures to strengthen the ecosystem for aircraft leasing and financing in India, Scindia said in a written reply that under International Financial Services Centres Authority Act 2019, the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) was established on April 27, 2020.

"New tax regime was introduced from April 2020 to make Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) inapplicable to domestic companies. An exemption has been provided from corporate tax for a block period of 10 years within the first 15 years for leasing units,” he added.

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No small aircraft will operate to or from Delhi to decongest airport

Radhika Bansal

10 Dec 2021

The government is pushing airlines to change flight timings to prevent overcrowding at airports. It has also asked them to stop operating smaller ATR and Bombardier Q400s aircraft to and from Delhi for two months starting December 15, said people with knowledge of the matter.

Some flight timings have been changed but airlines are said to be resisting too many alterations to the schedule. They also say any ban on smaller planes will lead to a closure of stations such as Kullu and Dharamshala.

Delhi Airport when new guidelines were imposed.

The aviation ministry wants carriers to ensure that too many flights don't arrive or depart around the same time.

"As part of the exercise, flight timings will be changed and this will ensure too many passengers do not clog airports upon arrival during the same time," said a senior government official, who didn't want to be identified. "Not just that, we have decided to ensure flight schedule approvals in the future will be done to ensure many flights do not arrive and depart at the same time."

"For smaller players like us, if they ask to move a morning flight to evening, we can't do it. Passenger Inconvenience that shift means we may have to cancel the flight because there may not be aircraft available. Vistara has 76 departures from Delhi. Of these, 15-20 take off between 6 am and 8 am. A few of them have been shifted."Vinod Kannan, CEO, Vistara

The government expects these measures to ease crowding. Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is said to be monitoring the situation after complaints of airport overcrowding on social media.

Airlines say it will be impossible to tweak flight timings in the middle of the winter schedule. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) divides the year into summer and winter flight schedules.

SpiceJet's Bombardier Q400

"We are already working under tremendous duress due to constantly changing rules around the Omicron variant," said another top airline executive, who didn't want to be identified. "Changing flight timings now would be impossible. Also, it would be very bad for business."

IndiGo's ATR-72

Such a measure will hit the operations of airlines such as Alliance Air, which only has ATRs; SpiceJet and IndiGo. SpiceJet operates Bombardier Q400s and Boeing 737s and IndiGo operate ATRs and Airbus 320 family aircraft. Another executive added that some of these destinations may not have enough passengers to fill 180-seater planes. ATRs and Bombardier's seat around 70 passengers.

(With Inputs from The Economic Times)

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