Hybrid eVTOL Plana Aero Signs LOI with Electric Power Systems for AAM Batteries

South Korea-based, Plana Aero, has announced this week a Let­ter of Intent (LOI) with U.S Elec­tric Pow­er Sys­tems (EPS), a lead­ing glob­al bat­tery sup­pli­er, reports a press release. Plana is devel­op­ing a 7‑seat eVTOL Air­craft and aims to con­struct a demon­stra­tor by 2024 and a ful­ly cer­ti­fied com­mer­cial eVTOL dur­ing 2028.

South Korea: Plana Aero Joins eVTOL Race With Unique-Look­ing, 7‑Seat Hybrid-Pow­ered Fly­ing Taxi

Found­ed in July 2021 by CEO Braden J. Kim who led the orig­i­nal Hyundai Urban Air Mobil­i­ty devel­op­ment pro­gram until ear­ly 2020, before it became Super­nal, Plana Aero is the sole hybrid eVTOL start­up in South Korea. The air­craft will have a cruis­ing speed of 300 km/h and a flight range of more than 500km.

Plana aims to com­plete the bat­tery-based eVTOL sub-scale pro­to­type this year before intro­duc­ing a 700kg weight half-scale mod­el. The com­pa­ny plans to open a branch office in the U.S and begin the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process with the FAA. Plana is also par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Kore­an Grand Chal­lenge UAM demon­stra­tion project organ­ised by the Korea Min­istry of Land, Infra­struc­ture, and Trans­port (MOLIT).

Plana is accel­er­at­ing its Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) busi­ness along­side many part­ners across the aero­space indus­try includ­ing Air­bus, Collins Aero­space, Turk­ish Aero­space Indus­tries, Korea Aero­space Indus­tries and from the auto­mo­tive indus­try, such as Hyundai Motor Com­pa­ny, Hon­da Motor Com­pa­ny, Man­do, Auto­liv, and Valeo.

Kim com­ment­ed, “It is a mean­ing­ful moment for Plana to sign this Let­ter of Intent with EPS, which has estab­lished a rep­u­ta­tion in the elec­tric avi­a­tion indus­try for its exper­tise and reli­able sys­tems.”

EPS boasts a grow­ing list of clients that includes NASA, Super­nal, Boe­ing, Safran and the FAA. The com­pa­ny also pro­vides its elec­tric pow­er­train sys­tem to X‑57, Boeing’s CAV (Car­go Air Vehi­cle) and Bell Helicopter’s hybrid Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty air­craft (Bell Nexus).

Nathan Mil­le­cam

Nathan Mil­le­cam, CEO of Elec­tric Pow­er Sys­tems added, ”We are thrilled that the Plana team has put their trust in us and are excit­ed for this excit­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion. The com­pa­ny is one of the top eVTOL devel­op­ment pro­grams to watch.”

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(top image: Plana Aero)