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Volocopter reveals new long-range fixed-wing eVTOL, VoloConnect, with certification expected by 2026

Volo­copter CEO Flo­ri­an Reuter has unveiled its newest eVTOL air­craft at EBACE Con­nect, Volo­Con­nect, which is longer-range, four-seater mod­el expect­ed to achieve cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by 2026.

While the com­pa­ny’s oth­er eVTOL air­craft, VoloC­i­ty has a range of 35km and tar­gets the inter-city mar­ket, the Volo­Conect has been designed to address the mar­ket beyond and com­ple­ments Volo­copter’s oth­er air­craft: Volo­Drone, Volo­Port and the dig­i­tal plat­form, VoloIQ.

Volo­Con­nect uses a hybrid lift and push design to trans­port up to four pas­sen­gers on routes of 100 km at a speed of 180 km/h, with a top speed of about 250 km/h. Volocopter’s team of experts, led by Chief Engi­neer Sebas­t­ian Mores, have been work­ing on the air­craft for more than two years and filed sev­er­al patents for its tech­nol­o­gy.

Mul­ti­ple scaled pro­to­types of Volo­Con­nect have already been flown and work is quick­ly pro­gress­ing towards test­ing full scale pro­to­types.  It has six lift­ing elec­tri­cal motors and rotors and two propul­sive fans, with retractable land­ing gear.

Reuter said: “Volo­Con­nect embod­ies the next dimen­sion of our mis­sion to offer afford­able, effi­cient, and sus­tain­able flight mobil­i­ty solu­tions for cities around the globe. Lever­ag­ing cus­tomer insights from our exist­ing VoloC­i­ty and Volo­Drone, VoloConnect’s capac­i­ty to sup­port longer mis­sions and high­er pay­loads serves anoth­er strong grow­ing mar­ket demand.”

“We are con­fi­dent that this air­craft fam­i­ly, and the years of expe­ri­ence and lead­ing inno­va­tion on which it’s found­ed, will pio­neer the way for elec­tric UAM ser­vices to launch com­mer­cial­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly.”

Volo­copter is on course to become one of the first eVTOL air­craft OEMs to launch pas­sen­ger-car­ry­ing ser­vices, as it is on tar­get to begin oper­a­tions in Sin­ga­pore as ear­ly as 2023. In Europe, it is com­mit­ted to start­ing ser­vices in France, to coin­cide with the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Volo­copter has tak­en a holis­tic approach to urban air mobil­i­ty, by devel­op­ing a full ecosys­tem that con­nects the nec­es­sary com­po­nents to offer elec­tric flight in cities. It includes part­ner­ships with Aéro­ports de Paris, Microsoft Azure and Lufthansa Indus­try Solu­tions.

Addi­tion­al­ly, the com­pa­ny is the only eVTOL devel­op­er with a prod­uct port­fo­lio of mul­ti­copter and fixed wing designs that can be used for pas­sen­ger and car­go trans­porta­tion and which has received Design Organ­i­sa­tion Approval from Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA).

Addi­tion­al com­ments and insight from Reuter about the Volo­Con­nect, where he talks about bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy, auton­o­my and fund­ing, will be avail­able to read at eVTOL Insights lat­er this week.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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