Bellwether Industries joins Inmarsat’s Velaris network to ensure safe intra-city travel for urban air mobility

Bell­wether Indus­tries is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Inmarsat to explore how satel­lite com­mu­ni­ca­tions can opti­mise the future of intra-city trans­porta­tion ser­vices, with a focus on safe­ty, reg­u­la­tion and inno­va­tion. 

The com­pa­ny is bring­ing to mar­ket Volar, its Urban Air Mobil­i­ty (UAM) air­craft for per­son­al and pri­vate mobil­i­ty, which aims to rede­fine future lifestyles and reduce com­pli­ca­tions often asso­ci­at­ed with city trans­porta­tion.

Com­bin­ing Bellwether’s UAM capa­bil­i­ties with Inmarsat’s safe­ty ser­vices and reg­u­la­to­ry exper­tise, the part­ner­ship will ensure safe­ty in intra-city trans­porta­tion with a focus on reg­u­la­tion and inno­va­tion. 

Kai-Tse Lin, Bellwether’s Co-Founder and Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, said: “Inmarsat’s con­tri­bu­tion is extreme­ly impor­tant to the future devel­op­ment of Bellwether’s Onboard Vehi­cle Man­age­ment Sys­tem and air­space inte­gra­tion. 

“It is cru­cial that the oper­a­tion of our Volar urban air­craft is a sim­pli­fied and user-friend­ly expe­ri­ence to make com­mut­ing in a Volar eas­i­er than dri­ving a car.”

Inmarsat owns and oper­ates the world’s most diverse glob­al port­fo­lio of mobile telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions satel­lite net­works. It holds a mul­ti-lay­ered, glob­al spec­trum port­fo­lio, cov­er­ing L‑band, Ka-band and S‑band.

Inmarsat’s Velaris con­nec­tiv­i­ty solu­tion and exist­ing exper­tise in avi­a­tion safe­ty sys­tems will enable Bellwether’s Volar to safe­ly and seam­less­ly inte­grate with com­mer­cial air­space, with accu­rate posi­tion­al infor­ma­tion report­ed back from an onboard satel­lite nav­i­ga­tion sys­tem. It also has the abil­i­ty to com­bine and har­monise data for uncrewed traf­fic man­age­ment.

Bell­wether will also gain access to Inmarsat’s reg­u­la­to­ry and air traf­fic man­age­ment exper­tise and Velaris part­ners through­out the design and imple­men­ta­tion process.

Antho­ny Spounc­er, Senior Direc­tor — UAV & Unmanned Traf­fic Man­age­ment, at Inmarsat, added: “Our part­ner­ship with Bell­wether will be crit­i­cal in the devel­op­ment of safe and effi­cient intra-city trans­porta­tion ser­vices with pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence as their dri­ving force.

“In col­lab­o­ra­tion with an urban air mobil­i­ty plat­form man­u­fac­tur­er, Velaris will play a key role in mak­ing safe­ty and effi­cien­cy indus­try-stan­dard fea­tures for the intra-city trans­porta­tion sec­tor. Togeth­er we’re defin­ing a new cat­e­go­ry of trans­porta­tion that is pas­sen­ger ori­en­tat­ed by design, pri­ori­tis­ing safe­ty and reg­u­la­tion.”

Volar is defined as a new cat­e­go­ry of pri­vate urban air­craft for intra-city trav­el, which has a hid­den propul­sion sys­tem and com­pact pro­file. 

Bell­wether made its pub­lic debut at London’s DroneX/Helitech in Octo­ber last year and at the Dubai Air Show in Novem­ber, com­plet­ing the free-flight test at an alti­tude of 4 m and speed of 40 km/h. 

Bellwether’s full-scale Volar will be a four to five-seater air­craft, fly­ing at an alti­tude of 915 metres with a speed of up to 220 km/h, and plans to bring the first com­mer­cial mod­el to mar­ket by 2028.