FIA 2026: VÆRIDION selects Drive System Design to advance the Microliner electric propulsion system

• DSD to devel­op, build and test the Microliner’s high-tech pro­peller dri­ve sys­tem in the UK ahead of Cop­per Bird inte­gra­tion
• Micro­lin­er propul­sion sys­tem devel­op­ment will draw on DSD’s aero­space trans­mis­sion exper­tise, inte­grat­ed engi­neer­ing and advanced phys­i­cal test­ing capa­bil­i­ties
• Pro­gramme advances VÆRIDION’s pro­pri­etary mul­ti-engine, sin­gle-pro­peller archi­tec­ture towards first flight and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion

VÆRIDION, the all-elec­tric air­craft man­u­fac­tur­er, has select­ed Dri­ve Sys­tem Design (DSD) to devel­op, test and sup­ply the Blue-Label pro­peller dri­ve sys­tem hard­ware­for its­nine-seat Micro­lin­er air­craft.

Announced at the Farn­bor­ough Inter­na­tion­al Air­show, the agree­ment moves the sys­tem from con­cept into detailed design, build and test­ing, sup­port­ing VÆRIDION’s progress towards first flight and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

DSD becomes the third key sup­pli­er sup­port­ing VÆRIDION’s Elec­tric Propul­sion Unit, along­side MT-Pro­peller and Evoli­to.

VÆRIDION select­ed DSD for its expe­ri­ence in aero­space trans­mis­sion sys­tems and inte­grat­ed elec­tric propul­sion, includ­ing the design and test­ing of heli­copter rotor gear­box­es and the devel­op­ment of pro­peller dri­ves for elec­tric avi­a­tion pro­grammes.

The Microliner’s propul­sion sys­tem is defined by VÆRIDION’s pro­pri­etary mul­ti-engine, sin­gle-pro­peller archi­tec­ture, in which two inde­pen­dent elec­tric engines dri­ve a sin­gle pro­peller through a direct-dri­ve trans­mis­sion sys­tem. The pro­peller dri­ve sys­tem is a key ele­ment of the archi­tec­ture that com­bines and trans­fers the pow­er out­put of the two engines to the pro­peller. If one engine los­es pow­er, an inte­grat­ed clutch auto­mat­i­cal­ly decou­ples it, allow­ing the remain­ing engine to con­tin­ue pow­er­ing the pro­peller.

Markus Kochs-Käm­per, CTO of VÆRIDION, said: “The pro­peller dri­ve sys­tem is the crit­i­cal link with­in our pro­pri­etary propul­sion con­fig­u­ra­tion, and DSD is the ide­al part­ner to help us mature it. Its proven aero­space trans­mis­sion exper­tise and in-house capa­bil­i­ties will help accel­er­ate val­i­da­tion as we progress towards Cop­per Bird test­ing and first flight.”

Jason Allen, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor at Dri­ve Sys­tem Design, said: “Our role as a key part­ner extends from man­ag­ing rel­e­vant aero­space require­ments, through detailed engi­neer­ing and sim­u­la­tion and onto hard­ware man­u­fac­ture and phys­i­cal test­ing. DSD brings expe­ri­ence not just in the lat­est elec­tric pro­pel­lor dri­ves but also from tech­ni­cal­ly demand­ing adja­cent prod­ucts such as wheel dri­ves for hyper­cars or hybrid dri­ves for gas tur­bines. We are excit­ed to work with VÆRIDION to cre­ate a world class solu­tion for its nov­el propul­sion con­fig­u­ra­tion.”

From design to Cop­per Bird test­ing

The Microliner’s pro­pri­etary mul­ti-engine, sin­gle-pro­peller archi­tec­ture was first demon­strat­ed at 20% scale in 2024 and has since advanced through pre­lim­i­nary design review in 2026. It is now enter­ing its next phase of mat­u­ra­tion towards full-scale Cop­per Bird test­ing and detailed design.

In prepa­ra­tion for Cop­per Bird test­ing, DSD will lead the detailed design, devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture and ini­tial test­ing of the first ‘Blue Label’ pro­peller dri­ve sys­tem units at its award-win­ning UK engi­neer­ing facil­i­ties.

The pro­gramme will be deliv­ered in two stages: the first will sup­port VÆRIDION’s Pre­lim­i­nary Design Review gate­way while the sec­ond will deliv­er test­ed hard­ware for inte­gra­tion into the company’s full-scale Cop­per Bird ground-test plat­form at Oberp­faf­fen­hofen air­port in Ger­many.

DSD’s scope cov­ers the pro­peller dri­ve unit, motor sup­port struc­ture, dri­ve­shaft and clutch, along­side oil-sys­tem devel­op­ment, com­po­nent opti­mi­sa­tion, hard­ware pro­cure­ment, assem­bly and rig-based test­ing.

Before ship­ment, the units will under­go func­tion­al test­ing at DSD’s UK facil­i­ties, cov­er­ing rota­tion­al oper­a­tion, lubri­ca­tion per­for­mance, seal­ing and gov­er­nor func­tion­al­i­ty. They will then be inte­grat­ed with two elec­tric engines on VÆRIDION’s test rig for full-scale propul­sion sys­tem test­ing, matur­ing the archi­tec­ture towards flight­wor­thy and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion-com­pli­ant con­fig­u­ra­tions.

DSD com­bines advanced mechan­i­cal-sys­tem design, sim­u­la­tion, pro­to­typ­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing sup­port and phys­i­cal test­ing with­in one devel­op­ment organ­i­sa­tion. Its exten­sive expe­ri­ence across elec­tric motors, pow­er elec­tron­ics, trans­mis­sions and con­trols includes trans­fer­ring auto­mo­tive elec­tri­fi­ca­tion meth­ods into aero­space pro­grammes, where low mass, effi­cien­cy, inte­gra­tion, reli­a­bil­i­ty and rig­or­ous val­i­da­tion are equal­ly crit­i­cal.