News

AltoVolo Releases Sigma Footage & Sets Date For Demonstrator

AltoVolo has released prototype flight footage and says it has completed a preliminary design review, with a full-scale demonstrator due by end-2026.

Published

4 months ago

May 4, 2026

Nour Nasir

AltoVolo

AltoVolo released flight footage of its Sigma prototype aircraft today and said it has completed preliminary design work, with a full-scale demonstrator targeted for completion by the end of 2026.

The two-seat hybrid-electric aircraft uses a tilting open-rotor propulsion system. AltoVolo calls the configuration HyperTOL — short for Hybrid Performance Takeoff and Landing.

The company said the preliminary design review is now complete, production aircraft details have been locked, and work has moved into detailed engineering and certification. The full-scale demonstrator is intended to support a manufacturing readiness review, though AltoVolo has not disclosed a build location or capital requirement for that phase.

AltoVolo also revealed that it has appointed a Head of Certification, and said the company has recruited aerospace personnel with experience on complex aircraft programs. AltoVolo says it is targeting full type certification and is engaging with certification requirements as the design moves into detailed engineering.

The Sigma’s open-rotor design has replaced an earlier electric ducted fan configuration following a study of performance, certification, and commercialization factors. The change is said to double hover time. Performance figures cited include a 165 mph cruise speed, 220 mph top speed, 500-mile hybrid range, 250-mile electric-only range, 45-minute hover endurance, 270 kg payload, and a maximum takeoff weight of 980 kg. Estimated takeoff noise runs between 65 and 70 dB(A) at 100 meters.

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AltoVolo noted that Sport Pilot certificate holders should be able to operate the Sigma with 25 hours of training, largely limited to fair-weather and daylight conditions. According to the company, license restriction has partly driven the two-seat rather than three-seat configuration.

The company’s funding round remains open; terms and investor details were not disclosed. AltoVolo said it plans to announce exhibition appearances in the coming weeks but gave no dates or locations.

Founder Will Wood previously led design at an unnamed US eVTOL startup in 2024. The company also cites earlier work supporting Aston Martin, Ferrari, and autonomous vehicle firm Wayve.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

1 week ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.