USI, Future Flight Global Sign MOU “to Advance Emerging Aviation Technologies across State of Virginia” 

Future Flight Glob­al (FFG), an oper­a­tor of elec­tric air­craft, and Uni­ver­sal Solu­tions Inter­na­tion­al (USI), recent­ly announced a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU), to joint­ly advance emerg­ing avi­a­tion tech­nolo­gies across the State of Vir­ginia, reports a press release. The col­lab­o­ra­tion spans the full range of air­craft.

Under the MOU, the two par­ties are “to coor­di­nate on plan­ning, reg­u­la­to­ry align­ment, con­cept devel­op­ment, demon­stra­tion exe­cu­tion, and post-demonstration scal­ing,” explains the release. “The effort is designed to inform future mobil­i­ty cor­ri­dors, secure oper­a­tional approvals and fos­ter inno­v­a­tive ecosys­tems that strength­en resilience, secu­ri­ty and eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty across the region.” 

Toni Drum­mond, Co-Founder & Pres­i­dent of Future Flight Glob­al, com­ment­ed, “By pro­vid­ing mis­sion pro­files and cap­tur­ing the evi­dence reg­u­la­tors and com­mu­ni­ties need, we can posi­tion par­tic­i­pat­ing tech­nolo­gies for broad­er adop­tion in both com­mer­cial and public-sector mar­kets, includ­ing dual-use deploy­ments sup­port­ing U.S Depart­ment of Defence (DOD) and civ­il oper­a­tions.” 

Daniel Wolfe, Founder & Pres­i­dent of USI, added, “For­mal­is­ing this MOU enables FFG and USI to accel­er­ate oper­a­tional readi­ness through real-world demon­stra­tions and dis­ci­plined data col­lec­tion, while align­ing ear­ly with reg­u­la­tors and com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers.” 

Scope of Col­lab­o­ra­tion

: Plan­ning & Reg­u­la­to­ry Align­ment — Joint con­cepts of oper­a­tions, safe­ty cas­es and approvals in coor­di­na­tion with rel­e­vant author­i­ties.

: Demon­stra­tion Exe­cu­tion — Real-world mis­sions that val­i­date plat­forms, pro­ce­dures and sup­port­ing ground sys­tems includ­ing sense and avoid radar, UTM data man­age­ment and counter-UAS inte­gra­tion.

: Data & Eval­u­a­tion — Stan­dard­ised test cards, mea­sure­ment plans and trans­par­ent report­ing to sup­port oper­a­tional approvals and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment.

: Scal­ing Path­ways — Post-demonstration roadmaps for cor­ri­dor devel­op­ment, fleet inte­gra­tion and work­force devel­op­ment. 

Geo­graph­ic Focus and Stake­hold­er Engage­ment

: Across Vir­ginia and beyond — Engage­ments will pri­ori­tise com­mu­ni­ties, infra­struc­ture, and routes where advanced mobil­i­ty can deliv­er mea­sur­able pub­lic ben­e­fit and mis­sion val­ue. 

USI and FFG are to work along­side the Vir­ginia Depart­ment of Avi­a­tion (DOAV) and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers with the Hamp­ton Roads Alliance, City of New­port News, the Penin­su­la Air­port Com­mis­sion (PAC) and oth­er indus­try part­ners “to accom­plish the shared vision for a resilient, inno­v­a­tive mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Activ­i­ties described in this release are sub­ject to reg­u­la­to­ry approvals and fund­ing,” con­tin­ues the release. 

Vir­ginia already plays an impor­tent role in the future of eVTOLs via NASA’s Lan­g­ley Research Cen­tre in Hamp­ton. Researchers are con­duct­ing wind tun­nel and flight tests on scaled air taxis to improve flight con­trol sys­tems for urban air mobil­i­ty. 

While com­mer­cial pas­sen­ger ser­vices aren’t yet oper­at­ing in the state, NASA’s work with the RAVEN SWFT Project pro­vides essen­tial data for safe devel­op­ment and test­ing of these elec­tric air­craft for poten­tial future use.  

For more infor­ma­tion

www.usi-inc.com

www.ffg.aero

(Top image: Cred­it — unitingaviation.com)

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