Volocopter to explore its eVTOL aircraft applications in Los Angeles as part of new partnership with Urban Movement Labs

Volo­copter is work­ing with Urban Move­ment Labs (UML) to explore the appli­ca­tion of its urban air mobil­i­ty (UAM) solu­tions in the Los Ange­les region.

The part­ner­ship between both com­pa­nies will pro­vide lessons to inform a pol­i­cy frame­work that envi­sions UAM as a safe, sus­tain­able, and equi­table mul­ti-modal trans­porta­tion com­po­nent in the city. UML is lead­ing this work as a part of the Urban Aer­i­al Mobil­i­ty Part­ner­ship announced in Decem­ber 2020.

As part of Volocopter’s US mar­ket cam­paign, the com­pa­ny will also be attend­ing at CoMo­tion LA from 16th to 18th Novem­ber, for the pub­lic to learn more about this new mode of urban trans­porta­tion.

Chris­t­ian Bauer, Volo­copter CCO, said: “Our part­ner­ship with Urban Move­ment Labs is a great entry­way into the US with our inno­v­a­tive UAM ser­vices. By lead­ing the con­ver­sa­tion about urban air mobil­i­ty with broad stake­hold­ers in Los Ange­les, Volo­copter can strate­gi­cal­ly iden­ti­fy and address how our ser­vices can ben­e­fit cities in the coun­try.

“More impor­tant­ly, we are also gain­ing real insights into liv­ing trans­porta­tion ecosys­tems in the US to build the best com­pli­men­ta­ry ser­vice to oth­er modes of trans­porta­tion for our future pas­sen­gers.”    

Volocopter’s fam­i­ly of air­craft for UAM ser­vices include the VoloC­i­ty air taxi for short intracity pas­sen­ger routes, the Volo­Drone for heavy-lift goods trans­port, and the Volo­Con­nect for longer pas­sen­ger routes between sub­ur­ban com­mu­ni­ties and down­town.

The com­pa­ny is also devel­op­ing phys­i­cal and dig­i­tal infra­struc­tures (Volo­Port and VoloIQ) to com­ple­ment this robust, mul­ti­pur­pose air­craft port­fo­lio and cre­ate scal­able urban air mobil­i­ty ecosys­tems in cities.

Volo­copter will launch its UAM ser­vices in the next two to three years after achiev­ing final cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Euro­pean Union Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Agency (EASA). Con­cur­rent cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) will allow Volo­copter to bring its ser­vices to the US short­ly after. The coop­er­a­tion with LA’s UML will facil­i­tate this mar­ket entry.

Clint Harp­er, Urban Air Mobil­i­ty Fel­low with Urban Move­ment Labs, said: “Volo­copter is one of the promis­ing urban air mobil­i­ty options for adding new lay­ers of con­nec­tiv­i­ty and trav­el options for Ange­lenos. Their part­ner­ship with Urban Move­ment Labs shows that they are inter­est­ed in learn­ing how they can improve the mobil­i­ty expe­ri­ence of Ange­lenos through a shared vision.

“Part­ner­ships like this are an impor­tant step in launch­ing this inno­v­a­tive indus­try with com­mu­ni­ty in mind. We are excit­ed to share this jour­ney with UAM trail­blaz­ers like Volo­copter.”  

Sam Mor­ris­sey, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor at Urban Move­ment Labs, added: “We are exe­cut­ing a com­mu­ni­ty-first strat­e­gy to engage with com­mu­ni­ty-based organ­i­sa­tions and inform a pol­i­cy frame­work that will guide the devel­op­ment of UAM infra­struc­ture in the City of Los Ange­les.”

As the only eVTOL indus­tri­al play­er to hold two strate­gic EASA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion approvals to design and pro­duce air­craft in-house, Volo­copter brings lead­er­ship in cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, ten years of expe­ri­ence, and more than 1,000 test flights to the table.

The com­pa­ny most recent­ly demon­strat­ed its progress at the EAA Air­Ven­ture in Oshkosh, Wis­con­sin, where Volo­copter con­duct­ed the first pub­lic flight of a crewed eVTOL in the USA.