A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

VerdeGo Aero is to provide its diesel engine to power the TriFan 200 eVTOL freighter being developed by&nbsp;XTI Aircraft. The new model is a smaller version of XTI's already in-development&nbsp;&nbsp;TriFan 600 VTOL passenger aircraft. 
The TriFan 200, intended for unmanned, autonomous cargo and logistics transportation, will be powered by VerdeGo’s high-efficiency, low-emissions hybrid-electric powertrain, which includes a 180KW generator, along with its high-power battery pack. The diesel (jet-A)-hybrid generator is key to the reduction of emissions and fuel burn by 35 percent compared to a conventional turbine powertrain, while according to Florida-based engine maker, reducing direct operating costs by 40 percent.
“XTI’s TriFan 200 is an outstanding application for VerdeGo’s hybrid powertrain systems, and we are excited to support XTI as an early customer,” noted Eric Bartsch, the CEO, and co-founder of the electric propulsion systems manufacturer. “XTI’s goals to provide its customers with reliable, high-performance cargo aircraft are ideally matched with the efficiency of low operating costs of VerdeGo’s diesel hybrid powertrains.”
While the project is still in the early stages of conceptual design, using XTI’s existing two-thirds&nbsp;scale model of the TriFan 600 aircraft as the baseline, the aircraft, once certified will be capable of carrying 500 pounds of cargo on flights of more than 200 miles, enabling it to fulfill short-distance, time-critical missions more rapidly than ground transportation.
“The TriFan 200 aircraft will open up a significant new market for XTI to address the needs of cargo and logistics operators globally,” said Robert Labelle, CEO of the privately-held XTI, which is headquartered near Denver, Colo. “We are excited to be partnered with VerdeGo to leverage their experience with hybrid powertrains, combined with our experience from the TriFan 600 program to create an efficient, economical, profitable VTOL aircraft for fleet operators worldwide.”

Curt Epstein

XTI Aircraft has selected Florida-based electric propulsion specialist VerdeGo, to develop a hybrid powertrain for its planned TriFan 200, a smaller, specialized autonomous cargo-carrying version of its TriFan 600 passenger VTOL. (Image: XTI Aircraft)

XTI, VerdeGo Aero Partner On Smaller Cargo TriFan

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