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Jaunt Air Mobility’s eVTOL aircraft to be introduced to Latin American market after company signs LOI with Flapper

Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty signed a Let­ter of Intent with on-demand avi­a­tion com­pa­ny, Flap­per, with the com­pa­ny set to pro­vide up to 25 of its Jaunt Jour­ney eVTOL air­craft for use in Latin Amer­i­can mar­kets.

Both firms aim to help ush­er in a new era of trans­porta­tion in the region, in cities such as Bogo­ta, Mex­i­co City, São Paulo, San­ti­a­go and Rio de Janeiro. By part­ner­ing with Jaunt, Flap­per aims to bring a new form of urban trav­el with safe­ty and oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy as the top pri­or­i­ty.

The deploy­ment of Jaunt Jour­ney air­craft into the Flap­per net­work is sub­ject to the par­ties enter­ing into defin­i­tive final agree­ments.

Simon Briceno, Chief Com­mer­cial Offi­cer for Jaunt, said: “We are pleased to part­ner with Flap­per to intro­duce a new form of urban trav­el in Latin Amer­i­can cities. Their rep­u­ta­tion and expe­ri­ence in the on-demand char­ter ser­vice are well-known, and they have a real under­stand­ing of the growth oppor­tu­ni­ty of our zero-emis­sion vehi­cles.”

Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty is design­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing an eVTOL air­craft based on proven Slowed Rotor Tech­nol­o­gy. Known as the Jaunt Jour­ney, the com­pa­ny has described it as the world’s first air­craft com­bin­ing heli­copter and fixed-wing flight capa­bil­i­ties, high­light­ing low noise, com­fort, safe­ty, and oper­a­tional effi­cien­cies. It says it is one of the only eVTOL OEMs aligned with cur­rent trans­port cat­e­go­ry cer­ti­fi­ca­tion rules.

In Octo­ber 2021, Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty entered into a merg­er agree­ment with AIRO Group which will bring togeth­er decades of indus­try-lead­ing tech­nol­o­gy with its group com­pa­nies to pro­vide best-in-class prod­ucts and ser­vices unique­ly capa­ble of address­ing a wide spec­trum of aero­space mar­kets.

AIRO Group lever­ages tech­nolo­gies that span data sys­tems, resup­ply pack­age deliv­ery, mil­i­tary aero­space train­ing, mil­i­tary, and com­mer­cial manned/unmanned air­craft sys­tems, and avion­ics tech­nolo­gies.

Mar­tin Peryea, CEO/CTO of Jaunt Air Mobil­i­ty, added: “The Jaunt Jour­ney has sig­nif­i­cant design fea­tures that allow it to fly in a vari­ety of weath­er con­di­tions. A sin­gle main rotor is the most effi­cient form of take­off and land­ing and has proven capa­bil­i­ties in gusty wind con­di­tions such as coast­lines. The air­craft offers a high­er lev­el of safe­ty than today’s heli­copters.”

Launched in 2016, Flap­per is the first on-demand pri­vate avi­a­tion com­pa­ny in Latin Amer­i­ca. The com­pa­ny com­mer­cialised sched­uled flights in Brazil and has more than 900 safe­ty-vet­ted char­ter air­craft on its region­al mar­ket­place plat­form.

Flap­per reports more than 290,000 users of its mobile app and is both ARGUS- and Wyvern-cer­ti­fied. Clients can choose from more than 80 dif­fer­ent types of jets, tur­bo-props, and heli­copters and can get an instant price esti­mate.

Paul Mal­ic­ki, CEO of Flap­per, said: “After a thor­ough exam­i­na­tion of the exist­ing urban air mobil­i­ty archi­tec­tures, we found Jaunt’s fixed-wing and slowed rotor design to be one of the most effi­cient and safest air­craft ever pro­ject­ed. Jaunt Journey’s tech­nol­o­gy boasts per­for­mance sim­i­lar to fixed-wing design, which is per­fect, con­sid­er­ing the region’s short run­ways, rocky shores and high-alti­tude air­ports.”

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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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