Aviation

The FAA just announced its picks for the Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Out of over 30 applicants, eight projects were selected to serve as the blueprint for how these aircraft will eventually fit into daily lives. The key focus areas are: urban air taxis; regional connectivity; medical and cargo; and autonomous flight. But the clock is ticking. Under the program’s guidelines, we can expect to see the first test flights beginning as early as summer 2026.

Joby Aviation, the company that acquired Uber’s own air taxi business in 2020, says it will launch its first commercial service in Dubai later this year. To build anticipation, Uber is adding Joby’s air taxis to its app so customers can get a sense of what it will be like when the service eventually launches.

That’s the message from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Thursday as the agency released a 311-page redacted report (pdf) on what went wrong during the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight test in 2024.

The electric aviation company aims to double its manufacturing footprint as it plans to get its first commercial air taxi service off the ground in 2026. This is Joby’s second factory located in Dayton; it started production of propeller blades at its first facility late last year. The company has said it would launch its first air taxi service in Dubai later this year.

One of the busiest travel weekends of the year doesn’t seem like an ideal time to update more than half of the world’s over 11,000 A320s. Still, a potential issue involving solar flares was serious enough that the company pushed the software update Friday. American Airlines said that 340 of its planes required the update, which it expected to take about two hours each. According to Reuters:

The air taxi company will start licensing its electric vertical and takeoff technology to third parties, starting with Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries. Archer already has an exclusive deal to jointly develop next-gen military aircraft with Anduril. Now its deepening those ties by supplying its electric powertrain and other tech to the defense contractor’s Omen drone program.

As the shutdown enters its second month, the FAA has decided to only allow commercial space launches and reentries from 10PM to 6AM, local time. The government has to clear significant swaths of airspace for SpaceX and others, and this is part of a broader order to ease stress on the air traffic control system.

British Airway parent IAG announced Thursday a partnership with Elon Musk’s satellite internet company. Starlink will be available in more than 500 aircraft across IAG’s fleet, covering both short-haul flights in Europe and long-haul journeys overseas, with the first taking flight next year. IAG is the latest airline to ink a deal with Starlink; others include United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, WestJet, Qatar Airways, and Air New Zealand.

The aircraft, which were both made by a spinoff of Chinese automaker Xpeng, reportedly crashed into one another during a rehearsal for the country’s upcoming air show. One of the electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles caught fire after landing. Video of the incident on X shows black smoke billowing into the air.

The company’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft took off from Marina Municipal Airport, where its operations are based, and flew over 12 miles to Monterey Regional Airport through FAA- controlled airspace. Joby calls it “a critical measure of the maturity of the company’s path to commercialization.” I call it “not enough time for an in-flight movie.”

Archer Aviation has said it plans on launching its first commercial air taxi service in 2026, but it doesn’t expect to be “at scale” until 2028, which lines up well with the next Summer Olympics.

You’ll be able to share the location of trackers in its Find Hub network (formerly Find My Device) with airline staff when you need to find lost luggage, just like you already can with Apple’s AirTags. Support won’t arrive until “early next year” though, and only on five airlines — while Apple supports over 15.

Bloomberg reports that local airlines have been told to refuse further deliveries of Boeing jets, in another blow for a beleaguered aerospace company that’s suffered from quality crises and layoffs.

Right on schedule, the Dragon capsule deployed its parachutes and landed off the coast of Florida as recovery crews began the process of bringing the capsule onboard a recovery ship and extracting its crew.

The Dragon spacecraft is fewer than 20 minutes out from splashdown in Florida. As noted on NASA’s livestream, it has completed the deorbit burn that lasted about seven and a half minutes at 5:18PM ET, and is entering a period of communications blackout as they reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

Last night, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, along with Crew-9 members Aleksandr Gorbunov and Nick Hague, left the ISS in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft now that the Crew-10 mission has arrived to relieve them. NASA will resume coverage of their return mission this afternoon, as they are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida at about 5:57PM ET, ending a voyage that started last June.