Startup advanced air mobility (AAM) operator Future Flight Global (FFG) signed a pair of agreements at the Paris Air Show aimed at building out its future air taxi business.
A letter of intent signed with Eve Air Mobility will see FFG take delivery of up to 54 of the startup's eVTOL air taxis in the coming years. FFG has previously placed orders for up to 116 Midnight eVTOLs from Archer.
The orders grow Eve's orderbook, already the largest in the AAM industry, with conditional orders for more than 2,800 aircraft.
The FFG order comes as Eve prepares for the first flight with its engineering demonstrator. The startup unveiled a configuration change at the Paris Air Show, with increased blade count on its props from two to four, redesigned wing booms, reshaped aft fuselage and the option of a wheeled landing gear in place of skids.
Also at the Paris Air Show, FFG announced a partnership with Italian vertiport startup UrbanV to develop a network of vertiports in Rome and its environs.
The two companies say they plan to begin testing aircraft using UrbanV's UV-0 testbed vertiport in Rome, before devising a plan to transition from testing to commercial operations using both eVTOL and electric conventional-takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
The partners say they plan to expand the network across Italy, particularly the Emilia-Romagna and Veneto regions, the French Riviera, and into “high-growth markets” in the Americas and Middle East.
The news comes a week after UrbanV announced an agreement with FBO company Signature Aviation to explore the joint development of vertiport networks in the U.S.