South Korea: Moviation Launches Pioneer VTOL, Changes From Carbon Fuel to Electric

South Kore­an start-up, Movi­a­tion, announced last week its launch of Von­aer, a VTOL Air­craft pow­ered by con­ven­tion­al fos­sil fuel which then changes to elec­tric dur­ing flight, reports a press release. The inno­v­a­tive Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) ser­vice plat­form has gained sig­nif­i­cant atten­tion in the Kore­an UAM indus­try. Von­aer aims to offer “a metic­u­lous­ly ver­i­fied, safe heli­copter air taxi to reg­u­lar users before the com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of eVTOL air­craft.”

A Movi­a­tion spokesper­son com­ment­ed, “Through Von­aer, we shall estab­lish our­selves as the pre­mier UAM ser­vice provider in South Korea and become a lead­ing com­pa­ny in this glob­al mar­ket.”

The com­pa­ny, only found­ed last year and based in Gang­nam-gu, Seoul, is sup­port­ed by UI Group, a well-estab­lished avi­a­tion com­pa­ny in South Korea who has been oper­at­ing heli­copter ser­vices for over four decades.

The release states, “Von­aer will offer a sophis­ti­cat­ed air mobil­i­ty ser­vice app that allows reg­u­lar users to reserve air taxis effort­less­ly, pro­vid­ing a seam­less trav­el expe­ri­ence that includes F&B (food and bev­er­age) ser­vice in exclu­sive ver­ti­port lounges, lug­gage trans­porta­tion, and pre­mi­um first & last mile ground trans­porta­tion ser­vices that embody Total MaaS (Mobil­i­ty as a Ser­vice).”

It con­tin­ues, “Vonaer’s ver­ti­port lounge, util­is­ing a con­ven­tion­al heli­pad for expan­sion con­sid­er­a­tion, aims to enhance pub­lic accept­abil­i­ty of air mobil­i­ty and obtain cru­cial cus­tomer insights through data analy­sis from ser­vice oper­a­tions.”

An aer­i­al view of a pro­posed ver­ti­port at Gim­po Air­port con­nect­ing UAM and oth­er means of trans­port (Korea Air­ports Corp.)

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Once eVTOL air­craft are cer­ti­fied, Movi­a­tion plans to con­vert its VTOL heli­copter into a com­plete eVTOL and lever­age the exist­ing infra­struc­ture. Moviation’s CEO remarked, “We will seam­less­ly expand our UAM busi­ness by con­vert­ing the air­craft when eVTOL com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion is achieved, lever­ag­ing the invalu­able expe­ri­ence and know-how gained through Von­aer.”

The exclu­sive “VON Pri­vate” pilot ser­vice, avail­able to priv­i­leged mem­bers, is set to begin in March and run until May. The ser­vice will orig­i­nate from the cen­tre of Seoul down­town, where pas­sen­gers can choose their des­ti­na­tion. The more acces­si­ble “VON Rou­tine” ser­vice will com­mence in June, offer­ing a fixed route ser­vice between Seoul down­town and the Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, along with mem­ber­ship ser­vices tai­lored to the dis­cern­ing tastes of priv­i­leged mem­bers.

On Moviation’s Linkedin page it states, “Imag­ine “If I can fly…” over a con­gest­ed road. Movi­a­tion will make your imag­i­na­tion a real­i­ty… Our mis­sion is to become Korea’s #1 UAM ser­vice provider by util­is­ing con­ven­tion­al heli­copters and even­tu­al­ly replac­ing all our fleet with eVTOLs.” Adding, “While oth­ers are still con­cep­tu­al­is­ing UAM, we take imme­di­ate action to secure a top posi­tion as Korea’s first UAM ser­vic­ing com­pa­ny.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.linkedin.com/company/moviationair/

http://uihelicopter.com/en/ui-group_en/?ckattempt=2