The FAA has proposed replacing its decades-old ban on civil supersonic flight over land with a noise limit, allowing aircraft to fly faster than Mach 1 over the U.S. as long as the sonic boom they produce does not reach the ground above a set threshold. Under the notice of proposed rulemaking that FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford signed on June 30, operators could fly supersonically without a special authorization if sonic boom overpressure at the surface stays no higher than 0.11 pounds per square foot. 

Beta Technologies and Surf Air Mobility have started flying the all-electric Alia CX300 across Hawaii to test whether battery-powered aircraft can serve the state’s short inter-island cargo and passenger routes. The demonstration campaign, which began on June 25, will run roughly six to eight weeks. The flights follow the March 12 agreement under which Surf Air Mobility placed a firm order for 25 of the five-passenger Alia, with options for 75 more, securing priority delivery slots for the Los Angeles-based operator.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says its experimental uncrewed X-65 has moved a step closer to its first flight, with its wings manufactured and ready to be assembled with the fuselage. On June 23, project partner Aurora Flight Sciences received the first wing set and has started integrating this with the rest of the aircraft. 

Robinson Helicopter is working with automated flight controls specialist Skyryse to integrate its SkyOS autonomy system into an R66 rotorcraft to convert it into an uncrewed air system for defense applications. Skyryse announced the collaboration on June 24, explaining that it will work with Robinson’s new Unmanned UAS subsidiary. 

Hong Kong’s Transport and Logistics Bureau has joined forces with its Civil Aviation Department to organize a so-called regulatory sandbox exercise to assess options for operating eVTOL aircraft. This week, the agencies selected Chinese manufacturers AutoFlight and EHang to conduct uncrewed flight trials in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Toyota Motor and Joby Aviation have firmed up their plans to jointly produce eVTOL aircraft, announcing what they described as a strategic alliance on June 30. The partners said they will start jointly establishing the groundwork for commercial production of Joby’s four-passenger model “with a particular emphasis on further improving productivity, quality, and cost.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation has broken ground on a dedicated research range for advanced air mobility aircraft at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, home of the FAA’s main training, research, and certification campus. Known as the Vertical Procedures and Analysis Range, the new development is intended to give the FAA and its partners a safe place to study how vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft operate—especially emerging electric and hybrid-electric designs—to help inform future operating procedures and standards.