It’s possible you’ll know Volocopter for its extraordinary 18-rotor electrical vertical-takeoff and touchdown (eVTOL) plane, however the German firm has additionally been engaged on a number of different designs appropriate for various sorts of flights.
Certainly one of these is the VoloConnect, an eVTOL fixed-wing plane able to carrying 4 passengers on journeys of as much as 60 miles at speeds of round 155 mph.
Following its unveiling final 12 months, a prototype of the sleek-looking VoloConnect just lately achieved its maiden flight utilizing six rotors to rise up and down, and two propulsion followers for ahead motion. You’ll be able to watch it within the video beneath:
Volocopter says that whereas the VoloCity is a two-seat automobile for city flights of as much as 22 miles, and the VoloDrone is a cargo service with a 25-mile vary, the VoloConnect is designed for longer journeys and goals to “join the town with the suburbs in a single swift, clean, and emission-free flight.”
It added that it’s focusing on 2026 for a industrial service utilizing the VoloConnect, with extra testing and regulatory inexperienced lights essential for its clean deployment.
The corporate additionally revealed that the VoloConnect’s maiden flight signifies that it has now efficiently examined all three of its machines within the air.
“Having a complete household of electrical plane within the take a look at flight section is a pioneering feat,” Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter said in a launch. “Volocopter’s management within the trade stems from asserting plans after which delivering on them visibly with public take a look at flights. Volocopter is bringing these progressive designs off the bottom, into the air, after which to cities worldwide.”
Volocopter is one among a rising variety of outfits focusing on the industrial eVTOL “air taxi” market, with many great designs populating the sector. Most of the predominant gamers are receiving some severe monetary backing, although with many plane nonetheless being examined, and regulators cautious about letting the small electrical plane make low-altitude flights over populated areas, industrial providers utilizing the autos are but to get off the bottom.
Based in 2011, Volocopter employs greater than 500 individuals in Germany and Singapore. The corporate has efficiently accomplished greater than 1,500 private and non-private take a look at flights, and raised greater than $500 million in fairness from a variety of traders, amongst them Mercedes-Benz Group, Intel Capital, and BlackRock.
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