Bristow, Volocopter Collaborate to Deliver UAM Services to U.S and U.K.

Bris­tow Group and Volo­copter have signed an agree­ment to explore and devel­op pas­sen­ger and car­go ser­vices for eVTOL air­craft in the U.S. and U.K, reports a press release.

As part of this col­lab­o­ra­tion, UK-based Bris­tow heli­copters, now a part of the U.S Bris­tow Group, “has placed a firm order for two VoloC­i­ty air­craft to be deliv­ered after cer­ti­fi­ca­tion with an option to pur­chase a fur­ther 78 vehi­cles in the future,” says the release. “Both par­ties will begin imme­di­ate coop­er­a­tion to build a UAM ecosys­tem that includes reg­u­la­to­ry dis­cus­sions, infra­struc­ture explo­ration and local part­ner­ship build­ing.”

This joint agree­ment “cov­ers the explo­ration of com­mer­cial, oper­a­tional, and eVTOL air­craft main­te­nance ser­vices, includ­ing adap­ta­tion of the VoloIQ, Volocopter’s pro­pri­etary dig­i­tal plat­form, to ensure Bristow’s effi­cient future oper­a­tions.” 

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Volo­copter expects to receive final cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the Euro­pean Air Reg­u­la­tor, EASA, in 2024, while con­cur­rent cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from the FAA may enable the com­pa­ny to start com­mer­cial ser­vices in the U.S soon after.

Dave Stepanek, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent and Chief Trans­for­ma­tion Offi­cer for Bris­tow, com­ment­ed, “Launch­ing this col­lab­o­ra­tive effort with Volo­copter marks a major mile­stone in Bristow’s effort to ush­er in a new era of ver­ti­cal trans­porta­tion solu­tions. Volo­copter has tak­en a prag­mat­ic approach to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion with a sim­ple and ele­gant ini­tial air­craft design and is lead­ing the pack in its efforts to bring their air­craft to mar­ket.”

Chris­t­ian Bauer, CFO and CCO of Volo­copter, added,“With this col­lab­o­ra­tion, Volo­copter sur­passed 500 pre-orders accu­mu­lat­ed includ­ing near­ly 30 firm orders from rep­utable part­ners. I am filled with excite­ment toward the vast poten­tial of the U.S. and U.K. mar­kets.”

Dave Stepanek

Found­ed in 2011, Volo­copter will gain cen­tre stage at the Paris Olympic Games in July 2024 and present­ly employs more than 500 peo­ple in Ger­many and Sin­ga­pore. The com­pa­ny has com­plet­ed over 1,500 suc­cess­ful pub­lic and pri­vate tri­al flights and has diverse investors includ­ing Geely, NEOM, Mer­cedes-Benz Group, Intel Cap­i­tal and Black­Rock. 

For more infor­ma­tion

www.bristowgroup.com

www.volocopter.com 

(Images: Volo­copter)