2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Hybrid-electric aviation pioneer Ampaire is preparing to launch a Series B funding round after confirming this week that Surf Air Mobility is no longer planning&nbsp;to acquire the start-up. In an April 22 press release, Ampaire said that it has decided to “move forward as an independent company” as it prioritizes efforts&nbsp;to bring hybrid-electric versions of the Cessna Grand Caravan utility aircraft to market.
Back in February 2021, flight marketplace Surf Air announced an agreement to buy Ampaire. The company did not comment on Ampaire’s confirmation to&nbsp;FutureFlight that the deal is now off but did not dispute that this is the case.
The Ampaire team is working on plans to convert several aircraft types to hybrid-electric propulsion, building on recently completed flight tests with its Electric EEL technology demonstrator, which is a conversion of a Cessna 337. It now believes that the Grand Caravan conversion could be approved under an FAA supplemental type certificate by 2024.
For now, this development work is being funded by private investors and public grants such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-e program and the UK’s Future Flight Challenge. Ampaire still has two of the EEL aircraft in test flights, with one being used to test new technology and systems as part of ARPA-e and the other to conduct market survey demonstration flights to familiarize prospective airline customers with how hybrid-electric aircraft could be deployed in commercial service. This work has involved Scottish airline Logan Air, with flight tests conducted in the UK and California.
According to Ampaire, hybrid-electric versions of the Textron group’s ubiquitous Grand Caravan workhorse, which it refers to as the Eco Caravan, will be able to perform missions similar to those executed by&nbsp;current turbine-powered aircraft, but without the payload and range restrictions of equivalent electric-powered aircraft. The company also maintains that opting for hybrid-electric propulsion will make early adoption by operators more straightforward than all-electric alternatives, which would require new charging infrastructure. It says that Eco Caravan operators would be able to conduct all recharging and refueling at their home bases, giving them more flexibility to develop passenger and cargo routes.
In October 2021, Ampaire, which is based at Los Angeles’s Hawthorne Airport, bought a preowned Caravan to use for testing. Earlier this month, it began ground testing the integrated propulsion system it has developed for the single-engine aircraft as it prepares to begin flight testing in the second half of 2022.
Ampaire says the Eco Caravan will consume 70 percent less fuel than the standard aircraft on short-haul flights&nbsp;and more than 50 percent less on longer sectors, carrying nine passengers or freight. If using sustainable aviation fuel, the hybrid version would deliver a 90 percent reduction in emissions.
“Powering up a new propulsion system, one that is fully integrated into a flyable aircraft, is a tremendously exciting mission for Ampaire,” commented CEO and co-founder Kevin Noertker. “We expect the Eco Caravan to be the first in a series of hybrid electric upgrades for a number of aircraft models that will transform the industry by lowering emissions and costs.”
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Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

Ampaire Seeks New Funding for Hybrid-Electric Plans as Surf Air Acquisition Is Dropped

Surf Air’s business model is unusual in several ways. First and foremost, it straddles the charter&nbsp;and scheduled regional airline sectors&nbsp;with both a membership-based program for those wanting to plan trips around its predefined network of city pairs and a wide marketplace offering bookings for more than 1,000 aircraft available for on-demand trips
However, this isn’t the only hybrid aspect of the company’s strategy. In 2020, it embarked on a journey toward&nbsp;the electrification of its fleet and a mission to enable many more operators to follow suit. 
This led to the founding of its Surf Air Mobility division as the fulcrum for these ambitions, and in February 2021 it agreed to acquire hybrid-electric propulsion pioneer Ampaire to act as the technology enabler for its goals. Then in July, it reached an agreement with Textron Aviation to buy up to 150 of its Cessna Grand Caravan EX single-engine utility turboprop aircraft and replace their Pratt &amp; Whitney PT6 turbine engines with the hybrid-electric powertrain being developed by Ampaire.
“Our north star and core mission is to introduce, accelerate, and bring to scale sustainable propulsion to multiple aircraft,” Surf Air president Fred Reid told FutureFlight. “We have made a conscious decision to begin with hybrid-electric because it's achievable by 2024 and will bring substantial reductions in [carbon dioxide] emissions.”
Based on the scope of Surf Air’s current transportation offering, it is focusing its energies on aircraft with between nine and 19 passenger seats, before, said Reid, “climbing up the aircraft food chain” to larger models. This is what got the Caravan in its sights and led to what it describes as an exclusive partnership with Textron to potentially convert a significant portion of the 2,700-unit installed base of this type.
Earlier this year, Textron established its eAviation electric aviation division but this has yet to announce any specific initiatives regarding new products. The alliance with the more nimble and entrepreneurial Surf Air seems to represent an initial segway&nbsp;for the more conservative public company. However, it is not the only company with eyes on this prize, as electric propulsion developer MagniX is making its own plans to breathe new life into the Caravans.
“We have a multilayered plan with Textron to market these [converted hybrid-electric] aircraft to operators all around the world,” explained Reid. “We are talking to both major airlines and charter operators to seek adoption [of electric propulsion] and fleet orders.”
Reid’s&nbsp;background in air transportation would seem to be an ideal foundation for this mission. Having started his career in the sector with American Airlines, he moved to German flag-carrier Lufthansa and became its first foreign president. He subsequently took the top job at Delta Airlines before launching Virgin America as CEO. Reid also has pedigree in business aviation as a former president of Bombardier’s Flexjet charter group, and in advanced air mobility as the former head of Kitty Hawk’s Cora all-electric eVTOL program (now Wisk Aero).
“We have a lot of respect for the all-electric people, but our focus is on achievability,” said Reid. “Our plans [for the Grand Caravan conversions] involve seeking approval through an STC [supplemental type certificate], and there’s a world of difference between that and a TC [type certificate] required for new aircraft designs.”
Another compelling reason for Surf Air to take the hybrid path is that the aircraft can continue to use existing airports, and do not require extensive investment in infrastructure, such as battery-recharging stations. “But we don’t see hybrid as a stop-gap;&nbsp;it’s here to stay,” said Reid. “Look at the Toyota Prius. That’s been in service for 24 years and still outsells all-electric cars. For roughly the same cost as an engine overhaul, we can help you get a new lease on life for aircraft operating today and with an immediate 30 percent saving in operating costs.”
For Surf Air Mobility, hybrid-electric will breathe new life into legacy aircraft like the Grand Caravan&nbsp;while also awakening the potential for flights between thousands of smaller cities that have no service at all today, not only in North America but potentially in places like Africa, where the alternative is an arduous trek through a jungle or desert. 
According to Reid, while the U.S. has around 5,000 airports, 70 percent of scheduled traffic flies in and out of just 30 of these, with thousands more accessible only&nbsp;by private aircraft. “Next year, we hope to open a couple of dozen more routes where there is currently no service and we hope eventually to get [services for]&nbsp; 90 percent of the population within 30 minutes of an airport,” he said. The company also aims to bypass crowded major hubs, as exemplified by existing Surf Air connections between the smaller Los Angeles-area airport of Hawthorne and San Carlos, south of San Francisco.
“We are a technology aggregator,” explained Reid when pressed to define what Surf Air brings to the table. “We’re not going to be building a factory or making components. Our power is in making good use of off-the-shelf or future technology [developed by others]. Our secret sauce is the software [that makes the resulting transportation options available to wider markets].”
Meanwhile, Surf Air’s leadership team is exploring alternative ways to raise further funding, having last year announced its intention to take&nbsp;the group public. Reid said that a lot of interest has come from investors focused on the so-called environmental, social, and governance sector, which encompasses sustainability. “Among that group airplanes are now like what restaurants are to movie stars,” he quipped.

Surf Air Sees Hybrid Propulsion as Fast Track to Sustainable Air Travel

Surf Air Mobility has committed to buying up to 150 Cessna Grand Caravan EX single-engine utility turboprop aircraft from Textron Aviation and plans to replace their Pratt &amp; Whitney PT6 turbine engines with hybrid-electric propulsion systems beginning in 2024.
The provisional order announced on Tuesday&nbsp;is for 100 firm and 50 options for the Grand Caravan EX, with deliveries to begin in the second quarter of 2022. In a media&nbsp;statement issued by the private air transportation group, Surf Air Mobility&nbsp;said that the transaction is subject to it securing further financing.&nbsp;
For now, the deal does not appear to mark a direct initiative by the Textron group to offer hybrid- or electric propulsion alternatives to its piston- and turboprop-powered aircraft. Despite having recently formed a new eAviation electric aviation division earlier this year, the company seems content for customers like Surf Air and their partners to take a lead in the electrification process.
Surf Air Mobility plans to develop a&nbsp;hybrid-electric propulsion system and will seek an FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) to install the system in its Caravan fleet. The powertrain will use a turbo-generator to charge batteries that run an electric motor-driven propeller. Surf Air Mobility is still in discussions with manufacturers of electric motors, the turbo-generator, and batteries, according to Surf Air Mobility chairman and CEO Sudhin Shahani.
Earlier this year, Surf Air Mobility agreed to acquire&nbsp;hybrid-electric aircraft developer Ampaire and the California-based start-up&nbsp;will drive the technological development of the hybrid-electric Caravan STC. Ampaire has demonstrated the Electric EEL, a hybrid-electric conversion of a Cessna 337 Skymaster in which one of the airplane's two piston engines is replaced with an electric powerplant. Ampaire also had planned to develop hybrid-electric propulsion for the De Havilland Twin Otter and Grand Caravan. The company hasn’t applied to the FAA yet for the Caravan STC, but this should happen soon, Shahani said.
“We’re building on the work that Ampaire has been flying now for three years,” he said. “We’ve proven cost and emissions reductions a little over 30 percent. I'm replacing [the PT6] with a lighter combustion turbo-generator, where you get back some weight, and then adding the EPU [electronic power unit] and the battery pack, which work in series with the turbo-generator, and wrapping all of that with our proprietary control software.”
Ampaire's work to date puts it in a strong position to act as a systems integrator for the plan to convert the Caravans to hybrid-electric propulsion. Likely potential supplies of turbo-generators and electric motors might include companies such as Rolls-Royce, MagniX, and Safran.
The advantage of hybrid-electric technology is that the turbo-generator makes its own electricity to spin the electric motor and propeller, eliminating the need for charging stations at airports and also the time required to recharge. “We think that this is the biggest step one can make in the shortest amount of time towards decarbonization,” he said.
Shahani doesn’t anticipate any major hurdles and said that current battery technology will enable the hybrid-electric conversion. “What we're doing here is engineering, not science. It doesn't depend on any updates in battery technology that don't exist today.”
As the new Grand Caravan EXs come online next year, Surf Air Mobility says it will place them with one of its operating partners, from among the companies that have aircraft and flight availability listed on the Surf Air Mobility platform.
There are no plans to replace the Pilatus PC-12s currently operated for Surf Air’s membership charter service by Advanced Air because they are useful for longer flights, from 300 to 500 miles, while the hybrid-electric Caravan will serve routes from 50 to 250 miles. The idea is to fly a similar mission profile—with slightly shorter routes—as the Grand Caravan, providing transportation in a nine-seat configuration while cutting costs and emissions by 25 percent. “We see room to scale our platform,” he said, “and we see a regional air service more affordable to a much broader audience.”
“Hybrid-electric propulsion technology, deployed at scale for environmental and commercial benefits, is an important part of the future of travel,” said Textron Aviation president and CEO Ron Draper.
Surf Air Mobility has flirted with electric aircraft previously, after it bought Blackbird, a charter broker, in early 2020. Although Blackbird announced plans to purchase 110 Bye Aerospace electric eFlyer light airplanes, with plans to put them in charter service, Shahani said, “We don’t have any immediate plans or timelines for that. We’re focused on the eight-passenger, high-frequency scheduled service, and bringing the price point down in a scheduled service setting. It’s a multi-phased approach, and that’s our first move in electrification.”
After the STC is approved, Surf Air Mobility will offer the hybrid-electric upgrade to existing Grand Caravan owners at a price similar to the cost of overhauling the PT6 engine. “So it becomes an attractive option for them to switch over,” he said.
Rob Scholl, senior vice president at Textron eAviation, explained that the Surf Air Mobility order is not a deal with Textron Aviation’s nascent eAviation division. Rather, his role means that he works “across the entire Textron Aviation enterprise. I look for interesting opportunities, technologies, products, and partners to work with. While there's not really an eAviation division today, what I'm doing is working across the portfolio with all the products that we have from fixed-wing to vertical lift to the defense side at Textron Systems, to look at different opportunities. And this is a great example of what Textron can bring to market. This is an opportunity to showcase the combined expertise and technologies of both Textron Aviation and Surf Air Mobility. The outstanding capabilities and versatility of the Grand Caravan make it an ideal aircraft to take advantage of this new technology.”
Textron Aviation will help Surf Air Mobility with engineering and data to support the STC program. After FAA certification, Surf Air Mobility will seek certification outside the U.S., and Textron Aviation will help with sales and product support. “It’s an exciting opportunity to create new markets and reduce the carbon footprint of aviation,” Scholl said. “If you look at Textron Aviation, we have the largest fleet of fielded aircraft anywhere in the world, so the opportunity to take a new propulsion technology and find ways to integrate it into existing platforms allows us to make an impact not only with new aircraft. If we see opportunities to do other things with new designs, we would take a look at that as well."
In 2022, Surf Air Mobility aims to take delivery of 12 Grand Caravan EXs. “We expect to be able to ramp up based on demand,” Shahani said. There are no plans to add autonomous technology to fly the Caravans, he added. Passengers who fly in Surf Air Mobility aircraft expect to see pilots in the front seats. “Our missions are focused on the passengers. Autonomy may start in the cargo space.”

Surf Air Plans Hybrid-Electric Cessna Grand Caravan Private Flight Fleet

Surf Air Mobility has agreed to acquire&nbsp;hybrid electric aviation pioneer Ampaire in a deal worth more than $100 million. The private air travel company aims to have hybrid aircraft available by 2024 for customers booking its scheduled and on-demand services.
All Ampaire employees will be joining Surf Air Mobility and its founder Kevin Noertker will be president of a new division called AMP. Both companies are based in Los Angeles.
The Ampaire team is working on plans to convert several aircraft types to hybrid-electric propulsion, building on recently completed flight tests with its Electric EEL conversion of a Cessna 337. It believes the first of these programs, which likely will include the De Havilland Twin Otter and the Cessna Grand Caravan,&nbsp;could be certified by the end of 2023.
“The probability of achieving this timeline has increased as a result of this announcement,” Noertker told FutureFlight. The company expects to get its first supplemental type certificate for a hybrid-electric retrofit within three years, with a second following around 12 months later as the process is streamlined.
The deal announced today comes almost exactly 12 months after parent company Surf Air acquired charter broker BlackBird, which in May 2019 <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/general-aviation/2019-05-30/bye-and-blackbird-agree-electric-airplane-buy">ordered</a>&nbsp;up to 110 of Bye Aerospace’s all-electric eFlyer light aircraft. Since these models can seat only four&nbsp;people and the aircraft types&nbsp;Ampaire is looking to bring to market will carry up to 19 passengers, the two types would appear to be complementary to the Surf Air group’s business model.
The new Surf Air Mobility division will offer retrofits for existing aircraft, including, it hopes, some of the 2,000 or so aircraft currently offered by multiple operators through the Surf Air marketplace. The company will also market the retrofit packages to other operators, in some cases sourcing available pre-owned airframes. It&nbsp;is already in talks with unnamed manufacturers about the prospect of supporting the production of hybrid-electric new-build aircraft.
“There are tens of thousands of aircraft eligible for this type of powertrain upgrade worldwide,” Noertker explained. For now, he is focusing mainly on aircraft certified under the FAA’s Part 23 rules (for airframes not exceeding 12,500 pounds maximum takeoff weight) as offering the best payload and performance combination from currently available hybrid-electric technology. Ampaire says it has fielded inquiries from regional airlines looking to replace turboprop aircraft on routes of between 50 and 500 miles.
The retrofit plan provides a way to give a new lease of life to existing, smaller&nbsp;aircraft that have not been seen as especially desirable for private charter or scheduled airline services. Noertker believes that operators are now more eager than ever to tip the economic scales in their favor in the wake of an air transport business model&nbsp;that has been jolted by the Covid pandemic. "This segment [older aircraft] has atrophied away, but with this technology, it is a very large market opportunity," he commented.
“By focusing on shorter, regional routes in the near term, hybrid-electric aircraft will completely transform the way we think about how we travel,” commented Surf Air Mobility president Fred Reid. “By improving the cost structure, we’re able to create a new kind of point-to-point network that opens up previously untenable markets with more direct connections.”
Ampaire estimates that existing aircraft retrofitted with its propulsion system could deliver operational&nbsp;cost savings of at least 25 to 30 percent. It says that the cost of the powertrain is on par with new Pratt &amp; Whitney PT6 turboprops.&nbsp;
In addition to on-demand charter flights using a variety of light aircraft, Surf Air provides&nbsp;services across the western U.S. using the Pilatus PC-12 single turboprop. The routes include Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Dallas, and Houston, as well as&nbsp;Burbank, Hawthorne, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Oakland, Napa, Concord, San Carlos,&nbsp;and Santa Ana in California; and&nbsp;Las Vegas, Tahoe, and Reno in Nevada.&nbsp;Services are available to members of its “private air travel club” who can make as many trips as they like for a fixed monthly membership fee.
“With flight demonstrations and testing already in progress, Ampaire’s hybrid-electric powertrain technology brings us closer to the next great shift in air travel: sustainable aviation that’s accessible to everyone,” said Surf Air Mobility founder Sudhin Shahini.
Now the main focus of Ampaire’s attention is the Eco Otter SX design study, for which NASA is providing $6.4 million funding, to convert the 19-seat&nbsp;Twin Otter from its current turboprop engines. An alternative conversion program for that model is in the works with rival electric propulsion specialist MagniX, with Canadian operator Harbour Air eager to be an early adopter for the all-electric conversion with its services in the Vancouver area.
For each aircraft type, the Ampaire team will have to develop a bespoke architecture for what Noertker called the building blocks, including the power electronics, the propulsion unit, and the batteries. "The sizes will be different for each aircraft type, but it is the same core technology with some new engineering each time, although a lot of the data will carry over," he explained.&nbsp;
Ampaire is also working on a program called Tailwind, which appears to be a new all-electric aircraft.&nbsp;It is also partnered on this project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program and with the U.S. Air Force.
The company has released little information about this product but it is expected to be powered by a tail-mounted ducted fan and is the beneficiary of NASA funding. "With a clean-sheet design like this we're seeing that it doesn't have to look like a traditional aircraft configuration, and so this is a north star of an idea of what could be possible, a platform for us to explore advanced concepts," he said.
In recent flight trials in Hawaii with local regional carrier Mokulele Airlines, Ampaire flew the Electric EEL demonstrator on real routes but without passengers to evaluate how the propulsion system would work in an operational environment. It achieved flights of more than 340 miles during the program and with durations of up to three hours.
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Flight Marketplace Surf Air Mobility Set to Acquire Electric Aviation Pioneer Ampaire

Private flight provider Surf Air has signaled its intention to step up its expansion into the advanced air mobility sector by announcing a $200 million investment commitment from&nbsp;Luxembourg-based Global Emerging Markets Group (GEM)in&nbsp;its Surf Air Mobility division. The California-based group formed Surf Air Mobility in February 2020 when it acquired aviation marketplace BlackBird as part of a strategy to introduce zero-emission alternatives to existing turbine-powered private aircraft.
The agreement with GEM calls for Surf Air Mobility to be publicly traded. On the first day of trading, for which a date has yet to be announced, GEM will provide a $50 million advance, with the remaining funds to be made available over a three year period.&nbsp;According to Surf Air Mobility, proceeds from the investment will be used to develop and acquire leading technologies in the zero-emission space. The funding from GEM will allow the company to continue adding organic growth, executing strategic new initiatives, and acquiring leading technology players in the space, said Surf Air Mobility CEO Sudhin Shahani.
According to Surf Air Mobility, it will be looking to transform its fleet with all-electric fixed-wing aircraft rather than eVTOL models. The company says it is focusing on serving sectors of between 50 and 400 miles. It holds more than 100 commitments to order Bye Aerospace's new eFlyer 2 and eFlyer 4 electric aircraft.
Parent group Surf Air provides a mix of private flight membership services and scheduled flights. It currently operates a fleet of Pilatus PC-12NG single turboprop aircraft.
“The launch of Surf Air Mobility and our acquisition of aviation marketplace BlackBird were the first steps in our original goal to bring the benefits of private aviation to the masses,” he added. “Now, we look to help drive the industry’s inevitable electrification, as that will play a critical role in making private travel accessible to all.”
Fred Reid, former global head of transportation for Airbnb, comes on board as Surf Air Mobility’s new chief strategy officer. In a career that spans three decades, Reid guided the launch of Virgin America as founding CEO, served as president and COO for both Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa, and headed fractional provider Flexjet. Before his stint at Airbnb, Reid was the president of eVTOL startup Wisk, which is a partnership between Boeing and Kitty Hawk that is developing the Cora eVTOL aircraft.
Surf Air Mobility is also adding two members to the company’s board: Carl Albert, the former owner of Fairchild Dornier and founder of Wings West, and Edward Mady, the former head of Dorchester Group North America.

Private Flight Group Surf Air Steps Up Expansion Into Air Mobility Services

Jerry Siebenmark

News and issues concerning the aviation charter and fractional-ownership industries and markets, including company announcements, regulations, new developments and labor issues.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

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Ampaire Seeks New Funding for Hybrid-Electric Plans as Surf Air Acquisition Is Dropped

Surf Air Sees Hybrid Propulsion as Fast Track to Sustainable Air Travel

Surf Air Plans Hybrid-Electric Cessna Grand Caravan Private Flight Fleet

Flight Marketplace Surf Air Mobility Set to Acquire Electric Aviation Pioneer Ampaire

Private Flight Group Surf Air Steps Up Expansion Into Air Mobility Services

Surf Air Targets Short-haul Flights with BlackBird Buy

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