Natilus has commissioned Composites Universal Group to build the carbon fiber wings for the full-scale prototype of KONA, its blended-wing-body (BWB) regional freighter, with delivery to Natilus promised in spring 2027. The San Diego company said the wings will then go through coupon, bond joint and limit load testing before the aircraft’s full-scale demonstration flight.

Natilus announced the contract in a press release dated November 11, 2026. The wing build follows the U.S. Air Force’s recent $3.5 million in research and development funding to accelerate KONA toward full-scale flight testing, and the company calls the contract a vital step in bringing KONA to market for cargo and defense applications.

A conventional wing for an unconventional aircraft

Composites Universal Group, which has worked with Airbus Defense & Space, Boeing, Archer Aviation and SpaceX, will build the wing at its Oregon facility. It has set up a streamlined tooling process that Natilus says is meant to reduce costs and speed up the timeline.

The two companies say they will reuse existing engineering, emulating traditional tube-and-wing production such as the Beechcraft King Air series at Textron Aviation and other certified transport and cargo aircraft. KONA’s wing uses a conventional spar-and-rib layout, the same basic structure flown on certified aircraft for decades. It will use FAA-standard aerospace materials and a cable-and-pulley flight control system, and it will be a “dry” wing, meaning it carries no fuel tanks.

Where current wings are typically aluminum, the KONA wings will be carbon fiber, which Natilus says offers reduced corrosion rates and fatigue resistance over time. The design needs fewer parts and fasteners, cutting riveted panels and thousands of drilled holes. Combined with aerodynamic improvements and 40% additional payload capacity, Natilus says it is aiming for a de-risked, cost-effective aircraft.

Aleksey Matyushev, CEO of Natilus, said KONA’s blended wing “may look different than any plane on the market today,” but that the wing build uses off-the-shelf technology. He said the company is committed to meeting the quality standards that freighter customers and the U.S. Air Force expect and require. Steve Ruege, co-founder, President and CEO of Composites Universal Group, pointed to his company’s experience building aircraft ranging from electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to unmanned systems.

Where the KONA programme stands

The wing contract is the latest step for a programme that has drawn both commercial and military interest. In October, AirPro News covered the Air Force award for KONA, which Natilus describes as funding for dual-use KONA aircraft for contested logistics.

When it announced its $28 million Series A round in February 2026, led by Draper Associates, Natilus said the money would finish the first full-scale KONA prototype, which it expected to fly within 24 months. The company described KONA as optionally piloted with a 3.8-ton payload, able to land on shorter, gravel runways and to support intra-theater lift, Agile Combat Employment and logistics resupply in the Indo-Pacific.

Natilus said in February that it is pursuing FAA Part 23, Amendment 64 certification for KONA and was choosing a 250,000-square-foot manufacturing site to build 60 KONA per year, with the first KONA due later this decade. It reported an order book of 570+ aircraft valued at $24 billion, with reservations from SpiceJet, Nolinor Aviation, Flexport and Ameriflight. The company, founded in 2016, also plans a passenger aircraft, HORIZON EVO, for the early 2030s.

Natilus says its aircraft use existing engine technology and vertical tails for control and stabilization, and are designed to work with current gate operations and airport infrastructure. In its company description, it claims a 30% reduction in fuel consumption, a 50% reduction in operational costs and a 40% increase in payload capacity. Its team includes people from Boeing, General Atomics, Northrop Grumman, Skunkworks, SpaceX and Piper Aircraft.

For prospective operators, the next milestones in the release are wing delivery in spring 2027, ground testing of the wings at Natilus’s San Diego hangar, and then the full-scale demonstration flight. Natilus did not disclose the value of the wing contract, and the release gives no date for the demonstration flight.

DHL Express has signed a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supply agreement with TotalEnergies whose initial phase covers 5 million liters over one year, for aircraft departing its hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is DHL Express’s first SAF use in France. The first SAF-powered DHL aircraft left CDG on November 9, 2026, the day the deal was announced.

In a press release dated November 9, 2026, issued from Bonn and Paris, DHL said it is the first express logistics provider to use SAF at CDG. The move coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Paris hub. DHL expects emission reductions of about 11,800 metric tons of CO2e a year in France, with the SAF flights running from CDG to its air hubs in Leipzig, Casablanca, Milan and London.

What the Paris agreement covers

DHL describes the deal as a first SAF supply agreement “over 5 million liters” for DHL Express air operations, and said its initial phase covers 5 million liters over the course of one year for aircraft departing the Paris CDG hub. DHL said the SAF is made from waste and residual materials such as used cooking oil, and works in existing aircraft and airport infrastructure without modifications. Compared with fossil jet fuel, it can cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by about 80%, depending on feedstock and production method.

The volumes will also be included in GoGreen Plus, DHL’s book-and-claim offering, which assigns emission reductions to customers even when their shipments do not physically travel on SAF. DHL said customers can use it to reduce their Scope 3 emissions. SHEIN signed a GoGreen Plus agreement with DHL Express in March 2026 to use SAF supplied by DHL for its international express air freight.

Travis Cobb, executive vice president of global network operations and aviation at DHL Express, pointed to the share of SAF already used in DHL’s own fleet:

“In 2025, SAF already accounted for 10% of the aviation fuel used across DHL’s own aircraft fleet”

Philippe Prétat, CEO of DHL Express France, said the opening of the Paris hub in 2021 marked a major milestone, and that SAF use shows that strong logistics performance and a lower carbon footprint can go together. Mathieu Soulas, director of new mobilities at TotalEnergies, said “Sustainable Aviation Fuels are a key lever for reducing aviation emissions today.”

How the deal compares with DHL’s SAF targets

At 5 million liters, the Paris deal is small next to the supply agreements DHL Express has signed elsewhere. In March 2022, DHL announced deals with bp and Neste for more than 800 million liters of SAF until 2026, which it described at the time as among the largest SAF deals in aviation. In May 2026, DHL Express signed an offtake agreement with SAF One for 25,000 metric tons of unblended SAF a year from a plant in Bahrain, with production planned for 2028.

DHL’s stated aim is to raise SAF use to 30 percent by 2030, a goal it restated in May 2026 and that also appears in the Sustainability Roadmap it cited in March 2022. DHL said in March 2026 that SAF accounted for about 10% of fuel consumption in its dedicated air fleet in 2025, up from 3.5% in 2024.

TotalEnergies has been expanding its SAF output in France. In a June 16, 2025 release, the company said it expects to produce more than half a million tons of SAF a year from 2028, to cover the increase in the European SAF blending mandate, set at 6% for 2030. It said its Grandpuits biorefinery would have capacity for 230,000 tons a year of SAF in 2026, and that SAF coprocessing had begun at its Normandy platform. The company said it supplies SAF-blended jet fuel to airports including Paris-Le Bourget, Bordeaux and Toulouse, and that Air France-KLM had signed a deal for up to 1.5 million tons of SAF over ten years.

The Paris CDG hub at five years

DHL opened the CDG hub in 2021 with a EUR170 million investment, which it describes as its largest in France since entering the country in 1976. The site occupies a 91,000-square-meter plot with 34,000 square meters of operational space, and its sorting system handles up to 38,000 parcels and documents per hour. The hub runs 24/7 and employs 760 people.

The AirPro Atlas lists 72,029,407 passengers at CDG in 2025.

DHL also cited ground-side measures in France. It said all of DHL Express France’s owned light commercial vehicles are electric, that it serves 55 French city centers with low-emission delivery modes, and that this supports DHL Group’s target of two-thirds last-mile electrification by 2030.

Maxwell Aircraft has unveiled the M1 Hybrid, a patent-pending hybrid-drive amphibious aircraft that the Bartow, Florida, company is developing first in a cargo configuration, the M1-HC, designed to carry a 2,000-pound payload over 1,000 nautical miles on the same flight.

In a press release dated October 28, 2026, Maxwell said the aircraft pairs high-power electric assistance for takeoff and climb with Jet A-fueled compression-ignition engines for cruise. Its design targets are up to 1,500 horsepower for takeoff and initial climb and approximately 300 horsepower combined in cruise, or 150 horsepower per engine.

“Our goal with the M1 Hybrid Cargo was to rethink what an amphibious aircraft can do,” said David Dillon, CEO of Maxwell Aircraft. He said the design uses electric propulsion where it delivers the greatest benefit and Jet A for its range and energy density in cruise, and described the M1-HC as designed to be a practical working aircraft rather than a technology demonstration.

How the hybrid drive and airframe are laid out

The release describes a mechanically coupled hybrid drive that combines electric motors with compound-turbocharged, direct-injection compression-ignition engines. Maxwell says conventional aircraft carry engines sized for takeoff even though they use only a fraction of that power in cruise, and that limiting electric boost mainly to the high-power phases reduces the battery capacity and weight the aircraft must carry.

The carbon-fiber and Kevlar airframe is based on the composite Gweduck, which Maxwell describes as a fifth-generation evolution of the Grumman seaplane design. The company says composite construction removes the corrosion concerns of metal aircraft operating in marine environments. A five-foot cargo door is intended for palletized freight, and the amphibious configuration gives access to unimproved runways and waterways.

Maxwell’s aircraft web page lists the M1-HC with internal tie-downs, a 135-knot cruise, a total range of 900 miles and a useful payload of 2,000 lbs. That range figure differs from the 1,000 nautical miles given in the October release. The same page lists an all-electric M1-E with twin 10-inch electric motors, a 130-knot cruise, a total range of 235 miles and a useful payload of 1,400 lbs.

Intended missions and regulatory basis

Maxwell says the M1 Hybrid Cargo could suit missions for remote communities, island operations, logistics, disaster response, government agencies and defense organizations. According to the release, the aircraft is available under experimental aircraft regulations, including commercial use for government purposes.

On its website, Maxwell says it is developing high-payload, long-range hybrid aircraft for transport and logistics that do not depend on conventional airport infrastructure, operating from runways, short unimproved strips, water, beaches and docks.

AirPro News has also followed other amphibious aircraft projects, including NOEMI Aerospace’s multi-mission seaplane plans and MEHAIR’s letter of intent for Tidal Flight seaplanes.