Qarbon Aerospace chosen by LIFT Aircraft to become end-to-end manufacturer for its HEXA eVTOL

Qar­bon Aero­space will per­form com­plete sys­tem inte­gra­tion and assem­bly for LIFT Air­craft’s eVTOL air­craft HEXA, as part of an agree­ment between both com­pa­nies.

The com­pa­ny is a lead­ing provider of large, com­plex com­pos­ite and metal­lic struc­tur­al com­po­nents and assem­blies such as fuse­lages, wings, flight con­trol sur­faces and engine nacelles and com­po­nents.

The work on HEXA will be con­duct­ed at Qar­bon Aero­space’s man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty in Red Oak, Texas, while anoth­er of its sites in Ray­ong, Thai­land, cur­rent­ly man­u­fac­tures the car­bon fibre struc­ture. In addi­tion to the sys­tem inte­gra­tion and assem­b­ley agree­ment, Qar­bon Aero­space will per­form sup­ply chain sourc­ing for the air­craft, mak­ing it the end-to-end man­u­fac­tur­er for LIFT Air­craft.

Pete Wick, CEO of Qar­bon Aero­space, said: “This pro­gram is anoth­er great exam­ple of the ver­sa­til­i­ty and capa­bil­i­ty of the Qar­bon Aero­space team, and we are very proud that LIFT has placed their con­fi­dence in us to sup­port them as the man­u­fac­tur­er of choice for their first-to-mar­ket eVTOL air­craft.”

Con­sist­ing of 18 pro­pellers, motors, and bat­ter­ies, HEXA is a one-seat pilot­ed ultra­light air­craft which weighs only 432 pounds. No pilot’s license or advanced train­ing is required, and the air­craft is cleared to fly over con­gest­ed areas when oper­at­ed under pub­lic use. Designed as a recre­ation­al air­craft, any­one can fly for $249 after a one-hour les­son.

Com­pa­ny founder Matt Chasen per­formed a flight in front of US Air Force lead­ers in what was at the time the first Agili­ty Prime demo last year.

Addi­tion­al­ly, talks are con­tin­u­ing with Ghost­wave, Par­al­lax Advanced Research and the city of Hill­wood in Ohio, about incor­po­rate a sens­ing sys­tem with HEXA, so it can be used as a form of trans­port for emer­gency respon­ders.

Kevin Rusta­gi, Direc­tor of Busi­ness Oper­a­tions at LIFT Air­craft, spoke to eVTOL Insights as part of a pod­cast episode, where he talked more about the com­pa­ny’s vision in the mar­ket.