2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Volocopter today announced plans to bring a larger, longer-range eVTOL aircraft into operation by 2026 to serve markets beyond those addressed by its VoloCity model. The all-electric VoloConnect will have four seats, with a range of up to 60 miles and a cruise speed of 110 mph (rising to a top speed of around 155 mph).
Unveiling the new lift-and-push concept during the EBACE Connect event, the German company said&nbsp;its engineering team, led by chief engineer Sebastian Mores, has been working on the design for more than two years and has filed several patents for the technology used. The aircraft features a wing connected to a V-shaped tail by a pair of parallel beams supporting six sets of electric motors and rotors. To the rear of the fuselage, there is a pair of ducted fans to support cruise flight.
Like the two-seat VoloCity, Volocopter intends to certify the VoloConnect under EASA’s new Special Conditions-VTOL rules. The VoloCity is limited to a range of just 22 miles and a speed of 60 mph. The company is also developing an autonomous freight-carrying version called the VoloDrone, which will have the same performance in terms of range and payload. All three models will feature batteries that can be quickly swapped between flights, but the&nbsp;company has yet to demonstrate this capability.
Among immediate competitors, the VoloConnect is closest to Archer's planned eVTOL, which is expected to have a range of 60 miles and a maximum speed of 150 mph. Both Joby and Lilium are promising increased performance of, respectively, 150 miles/200mph and 155 miles/175 mph.
“We can now cover all segments of the $290 billion urban air mobility market,” Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter told reporters. “We will offer a seamless end-to-end customer experience through our VoloIQ digital platform.”
Volocopter sees the VoloCity aircraft accounting for $110 billion in revenues from urban services by 2035, with the VoloConnect operations between cities bringing in an additional $60 billion. The company anticipates that the VoloDrone will generate $120 billion in revenues by the time, including $50 billion from “on-site transport,” $30 billion from “urban parcel” deliveries, and $40 billion for flights in remote areas.
Reuter confirmed that the company aims for the smaller VoloCity aircraft to begin commercial operations before the end of 2023, with Paris and Singapore still likely to be the cities in which its air taxi services launch. He said the company has ambitions to build and operate as many as 100,000 aircraft.&nbsp;According to Reuter, the VoloCity has sufficient range to offer connections between&nbsp;93 of the world's top 100 airports and their respective city centers.
Earlier this year, Volocopter raised a further $240 million in its latest private funding round, taking its total capital raised since its launch in 2011 to almost $400 million. “We see huge interest, including from the public investment community, and we are confident we can raise the necessary [further] funding,” Reuter said. “We are having interesting conversations with numerous investors for different [investment] routes.”
Several of Volocopter’s rival eVTOL developers have announced plans to raise significant amounts of funding through initial public offerings via mergers with special purpose acquisition companies. Volocopter has long been rumored to be considering this approach as well.
Volocopter says it will work with partners to develop vertiports and other ground infrastructure. Initially, it intends to operate from existing heliports, having added recharging facilities.
For the most part, Volocopter intends to retain direct control of commercial operations. However, Reuter indicated that in some markets it may work with partners, such as in China where the country's Geely automotive group is one of its financial backers.
The VoloConnect is the company's fifth-generation eVTOL design, following on from earlier iterations including the VC200 and the 2X. Initially, the aircraft will be operated with a pilot on board, but Volocopter intends to transition to autonomous operations once the regulatory environment will support this move.

Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

Volocopter Adds Larger, Longer-range eVTOL to Its Portfolio

Volocopter this week went public with its plans to introduce air taxi operations with its eVTOL aircraft into the U.S. market. In a January 15 announcement, the German startup said that the FAA has accepted its application to concurrently validate the EASA type certification it expects secure in the next two or three years.
The company said that its application was accepted by the FAA on December 22. According to a spokeswoman, the U.S. agency has indicated a willingness to consider an alternative basis for certification to the new Special Condition VTOL (SC-VTOL) certification process now being finalized by EASA. This would be the new 14 CFR 21.17 (b) special class, which is intended for aircraft that don’t fit the amended versions of existing Part 23 rules for eVTOL designs with conventional takeoff capability (as per 14 CFR Part 23 Amendment 64) or Part 27 for rotorcraft (as per 14 CFR Part 27).
Later this year, Europe’s EASA is expected to confirm means of compliance for its new Special Condition VTOL certification process, and Volocopter is pursuing this approval for its two-seat, all-electric VoloCity aircraft. Volocopter already holds EASA Design Organization Approval, giving it the required license to develop and build certified aircraft.
“What EASA did when building SC-VTOL was to combine CS-23 Amendment 5 [EASA's equivalent to the U.S. 14 CFR Part 23 Amendment 64] with additional safety objectives that it derived from CS-27 [Part 27] for the relevant aspects of the aircraft,” said Volocopter in a written explanation. “This is exactly what FAA has in mind when developing the certification basis per 21.17 (b). This in turn allows the FAA to widely accept what EASA is requiring from the product. This will lead to great overlap in requirements, offering the potential for a smooth and straightforward validation through FAA.”
Volocopter said it sees potential to launch intra-city air taxi services in major metropolitan areas such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Initially, the VoloCity would fly with a pilot, meaning only one passenger seat would be available, but the aircraft is intended for autonomous operations.&nbsp;Observers have questioned how Washington, DC, could be considered for eVTOL air taxi services, in view of the no-fly zone in place there for security reasons.&nbsp;
In 2020, the company announced its involvement with local partners looking at potential air taxi operations in Paris and Singapore. It has previously explored Dubai as&nbsp;a possible launch market. In 2018, Volocopter conducted an indoor, tethered&nbsp;demonstration flight (behind protective glass) in Las Vegas during that year’s Consumer Electronics Show.
Working in partnership with UK-based Skyports, Volocopter has developed the VoloPort concept for the vertiport ground facilities it envisages for the planned air taxi services. The company says it is already has had contact with officials in some of the U.S. cities it has in mind.
“At the beginning, we can refit the existing helipad infrastructure for our purposes,” Volocopter’s spokeswoman told FutureFlight. “It will just need a few adaptations so we can perform our battery swap, for example. Looking further down the line, we are working together with airports and real estate partners to provide ground infrastructure.”
Volocopter already has U.S.-based partners in the shape of two of its investors, Intel and Micron. The planned air taxi services will be managed through its VoloIQ customer interface platform.
In November 2020, rival eVTOL aircraft developer&nbsp;Lilium announced plans&nbsp;to establish longer-range services in Florida. These are set to begin out of a purpose-built vertiport to be built in partnership with Tavistock Development at its Lake Nona project near Orlando. The operation, using Lilium’s five-seat aircraft, is expected to begin in 2025, and for that aircraft, the manufacturer is pursuing certification under EASA's SC-VTOL&nbsp;and FAA Part 23 rules.
In December the envisaged U.S. market for eVTOL air taxi services was shaken up by the news that ride-hailing giant Uber had sold its&nbsp;Uber Elevate platform&nbsp;to Joby Aviation. Uber had been a standard-bearer for so-called urban air mobility operations, and Joby was one of ten manufacturing partners for its planned network. Joby intends to launch its own services, perhaps picking up on Uber’s intention to start with Dallas and Los Angeles as early-adopter cities, but Uber’s departure from the nascent market has perhaps created a void that companies like Volocopter are now seeking to fill.

Volocopter Makes a Move on the U.S. Urban Air Mobility Market

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) today awarded Design Organization Approval (DOA) to eVTOL aircraft developer Volocopter. As an approved design organization, the company now has a higher level of authority to conduct tasks associated with the development and manufacturing of aircraft under EASA rules and process.
Volocopter claims to be the first eVTOL start-up company to receive the DOA clearance from EASA. The German company says this will give it a competitive edge in being able to accelerate the pace of getting its aircraft into production.
The DOA process means that EASA exercises its oversight of approved companies as a whole. This reduces the number of steps that have to be completed on the path to granting type certification and airworthiness approval for products.
“Awarding the first DOA with a scope of work for VTOL is a milestone for industry,” commented EASA executive director Patrick Ky. “We are happy about the successful cooperation and the fact that our safety standards are now part of the rising eVTOL market.”
In July 2019, EASA published its new <a href="https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/SC-VTOL-01.pdf">Special Condition rules</a> for certifying VTOL aircraft. Volocopter is seeking&nbsp;type certification for its VoloCity aircraft by the end of 2022.

EASA Grants First Design Organization Approval to eVTOL Developer Volocopter

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Volocopter

News

Volocopter Adds Larger, Longer-range eVTOL to Its Portfolio

Volocopter Makes a Move on the U.S. Urban Air Mobility Market

EASA Grants First Design Organization Approval to eVTOL Developer Volocopter

Volocopter Unveils VoloCity, Its First Production eVTOL

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN