AAM og voldsomt press på myndigheter for å få fart på tingene - AIN / AW&ST

AAM: Advanced Aerial Mobility

Dette har vært omtalt her på bloggen mange ganger, men presset på myndigheter bare øker. Husk et par ting her: Dagens sikkerhetsnivå innen kommersiell luftfart har utviklet seg gjennom 120 år. De nye "dingsene" skal ha samme sikkerhetsnivå som flygingen i dag fra dag èn. Det betyr testing, testing og testing. Maskinene skal sertifiseres; etter hvilke forskrifter? Maskinene skal i følge produsentene, fly i hopetall, gjerne i urbane områder. Hvordan skal de kontrolleres? Artikkelen under viser tydelig at hissige politikere påvirket av meget sterke lobbyister, gjør saken vanskelig for seriøse myndigheter. Ta den tid som trengs for å slippe disse løs sammen med dagens flytrafikk. (Red.)

March 30, 2023

Hearing Urges U.S. Government To Unlock AAM

by Charles Alcock

 - March 30, 2023, 12:09 PM

 

Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), chairman of the U.S. aviation subcommittee, heavily criticized the FAA's approach to regulating the advanced air mobility sector. (Image: AIN)

The U.S. House aviation subcommittee this week turned its attention to new market entrants, such as drones and eVTOL aircraft, as it considered its position on the pending FAA reauthorization bill. In opening statements before industry testimony on March 30, several lawmakers were heavily critical of the Biden Administration, accusing it of failing to support the emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) sector.

Comparing the newcomers to the U.S. aviation system to runners in a marathon race who can’t find the finish line when signposts are removed after 25 miles, subcommittee chairman Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) said the industry has been thwarted by its own government. “We don’t have a government that has the processes in place to provide predictability in decision making, or that gets the urgency to certify and integrate these products,” he told the hearing in Washington, D.C.

“After five years, the FAA has certified just one drone,” Graves continued. “We cannot allow these opportunities to be stifled by red tape and requests for more data. We’re going to cede our leadership [in the AAM sector] to other countries.”

Subcommittee ranking minority member Rick Larsen (D-Washington) echoed some of the Republican chair’s critique, calling for an end to “organizational inefficiencies” at the FAA to create the regulatory bandwidth to certify new aircraft and approve access to the national airspace. He characterized the challenge as an opportunity to create some 280,000 jobs in the new sector, while also opening the door to new technology that could significantly cut aviation’s carbon footprint.

The subcommittee of the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee heard from eight industry witnesses representing manufacturers and operators of eVTOL aircraft and uncrewed air systems. While their contributions were less politically tinged than those of the elected officials, they urged Congress to give FAA both the mandate and resources to help the AAM sector to fulfill its potential.

Witnesses giving both oral and written testimony included the following Adam Woodworth, CEO of drone maker Wing; Roxana Kennedy, chief of police in Chula Vista, California; Stuart Ginn, medical director of WakeMed Health and Hospitals; Catherine Cahill, director of the Alaska Center of UAS Integration; Kyle Clark, CEO of eVTOL aircraft developer Beta Technologies; JoeBen Bevirt, Joby Aviation’s CEO, Chris Bradshaw, CEO of the Bristow Group, representing the Helicopter Association International; and Clint Harper, an AAM expert and community advocate.

Daily Memo: Lilium, Vertical Aerospace Face Precarious Cash Runway

Ben Goldstein March 30, 2023

Lilium needs to raise an additional $540 million to fund operations through certification.

Credit: Lilium

This year is shaping up to be a pivotal one for the host of electric air taxi startups vying to establish their presence in the nascent market for urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, with attention shifting from concepts and technology demonstrations to building type-conforming aircraft that can be flown for certification credit.

But whether each company in the advanced air mobility (AAM) race has the necessary capital to see their plans through to certification remains an open question. Financial conditions have tightened considerably over the last year, and interest rates continue to rise around the world, helping to send AAM stocks to new depths each week, with some companies now officially trading in penny-stock territory. 

Of the 10 publicly-traded companies tracked by Aviation Week’s AAM Stock Composite, two electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle OEMs—Lilium and Vertical Aerospace—are showing severe signs of financial strain, while others may run into similar problems as time progresses.

In the case of Lilium, the German startup needs to raise around $540 million to fund operations through to type certification, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission. The company ended 2022 with around $273 million in cash after raising an additional $119 million from investors.

Lilium CEO Klaus Roewe recently acknowledged in an interview with Aviation Week that it is “obvious” his company does not have enough cash to make it to expected type certification in 2025. But he said he remains “100% confident” that Lilium will find a way to close the funding gap, even if that means looking to potential strategic investors or government funding as options to shore up the company’s balance sheet.

Those statements did little to assuage the doubts swirling in AAM circles about Lilium’s cash runway, however. The company, which exited the third-quarter of 2022 with €160 million in total liquidity, is projected to continue burning cash at its estimated rate of €250 million per year, according to Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth, translating to a cash runway of roughly eight to nine months. 

“If you don’t have cash, you’re not going to make it to certification. It’s very simple,” says Sergio Cecutta, founder of SMG Consulting, a boutique firm that specializes in the aerospace and automotive industries. “Lilium stated clearly that it needs another $540 million to get there, and we know that raising half a billion dollars in today’s world is not an easy task at all.”

Like Lilium, the financial runway for Vertical Aerospace is looking rather precarious. The Bristol, England-based startup ended 2022 with £122.8 million in cash and expects to spend £90 million over the next 12 months, leaving it with a cash runway through the first quarter of 2024, according to Raymond James. But the company does have a further $87 million in net funds available over the remaining three-year term of the subscription line it arranged with Nomura Securities International last August, and it only burned through around $10 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

“Vertical has a bit more runway, but whatever way you slice it, they don’t have enough money to get to certification either, so they’re going to need to raise more capital,” Cecutta says.

Raising large amounts of cash is no easy feat for AAM companies in the current financial markets. Debt servicing costs have risen tremendously in the last year, and stock valuations have plunged across the sector–Lilium and Vertical’s shares have fallen by roughly 80% and 70% over the last 12 months, respectively–meaning any new share issues will generate less cash for the companies while further diluting the share price for existing investors.

Other AAM companies may soon find themselves in a similar predicament. Cecutta highlights AutoFlight, Eve Air Mobility and Eviation as several of the OEMs that could eventually run into liquidity problems if they continue to burn cash at current rates. But the situation facing Lilium and Vertical is particularly dire, he warns, because both those companies are aiming for certification and service entry in 2025, which makes the need to raise cash this year even greater. 

“I think the proximity to certification makes raising cash more urgent,” Cecutta says. “But it depends how they raise money and at what valuation. We know for sure they need to raise more this year, but we still don’t know how they’re going to do it.”