NOEMI Aerospace Secures €3M from Innovation Norway for Electric Amphibious Aircraft Program

NOEMI Aero­space has received €3 mil­lion from Inno­va­tion Nor­way to sup­port the flight test pro­gram for its elec­tric amphibi­ous air­craft. The pub­lic fund­ing will be matched by €4 mil­lion from pri­vate investors, bring­ing the total to €7 mil­lion for the pro­gram.

The award, announced July 15, 2026, is the largest sin­gle project grant from Inno­va­tion Nor­way so far this year. It will fund ground, water, and air test­ing for the company’s first full-scale test air­craft, from ini­tial sys­tem tests through to first flight and the sub­se­quent flight test cam­paign.

The air­craft is designed to oper­ate from both water and land with­out requir­ing new infra­struc­ture. It tar­gets region­al pas­sen­ger trans­port but can also sup­port car­go, mede­vac, search and res­cue, mil­i­tary, fire­fight­ing, and oth­er mis­sions.

Eric Lithun, Founder and CEO of NOEMI Aero­space, described the fund­ing as val­i­da­tion of the company’s progress and tech­nol­o­gy. The flight test pro­gram is con­sid­ered one of the most crit­i­cal phas­es in air­craft devel­op­ment.

At the company’s facil­i­ty at Torp Sande­fjord Air­port, the first full-scale test air­craft is under con­struc­tion. Wing pro­duc­tion is under­way, motors, invert­ers, and bat­tery sys­tems are installed, and the elec­tric dri­ve­train test rig will begin oper­a­tions in August. Roll­out is expect­ed with­in the next 12 months, with first flight tar­get­ed by the end of 2027.

The project aims to devel­op a new cat­e­go­ry in zero-emis­sion region­al avi­a­tion. It com­bines Nor­we­gian and inter­na­tion­al exper­tise in avi­a­tion, advanced com­pos­ites, elec­tric propul­sion, and man­u­fac­tur­ing. The long-term goal is to estab­lish a new export indus­try based in Nor­way.

Leon Bakke­bø, Direc­tor of Financ­ing at Inno­va­tion Nor­way, not­ed that pub­lic risk cap­i­tal can be cru­cial for tech­nol­o­gy projects with long devel­op­ment time­lines. “Inno­va­tion Norway’s role is to con­tribute where the mar­ket alone is not suf­fi­cient. For com­pa­nies devel­op­ing new tech­nol­o­gy with glob­al ambi­tions, pub­lic risk cap­i­tal can be cru­cial in unlock­ing pri­vate cap­i­tal and mov­ing projects into the next phase.”

Eirik San­dal, Co-founder and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer of NOEMI Aero­space, said that the size of the grant “pro­vides increased con­fi­dence for exist­ing own­ers and new investors and strength­ens our posi­tion in the inter­na­tion­al fundrais­ing process towards cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and mar­ket intro­duc­tion”.

Lene Sælen, Senior Advis­er at Inno­va­tion Nor­way Vest­land, point­ed to Norway’s poten­tial to lead in zero-emis­sion avi­a­tion solu­tions. Elec­tric amphibi­ous air­craft could address region­al con­nec­tiv­i­ty chal­lenges in coastal and remote areas while reduc­ing emis­sions com­pared to tra­di­tion­al air­craft.

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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