VerdeGo Aero’s Hybrid Systems Integration Lab (HSIL) Upgraded to Accelerate Customer Timelines

VerdeGo Aero has announced the lat­est upgrades to its Hybrid Sys­tems Inte­gra­tion Lab (HSIL), which include enabling real-world inte­gra­tion, test­ing and val­i­da­tion of hybrid-elec­tric pow­er­train sys­tems for eVTOL and Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty appli­ca­tions.

The upgrad­ed HSIL now pro­vides an even faster path to mar­ket, enabling sim­u­lat­ed pilot­ed flight inte­grat­ed with VerdeGo’s hybrid pow­er­plants. Locat­ed on Day­tona Beach’s Class C Air­port, VerdeGo Aero says the lab helps cus­tomers reduce devel­op­ment time­lines by cap­i­tal­iz­ing on the com­pa­ny’s exten­sive invest­ments in advanced equip­ment, proven exper­tise and real-world test­ing capa­bil­i­ties.

Eric Bartsch, CEO of VerdeGo Aero, said: VerdeGo Aero has been at the fore­front of hybrid-elec­tric propul­sion, and the HSIL demon­strates how we’re sup­port­ing the industry’s next step for­ward. By open­ing this lab to part­ners, we’re help­ing air­craft devel­op­ers reduce pro­gram risk, accel­er­ate sched­ules, and unlock the full poten­tial of hybrid-elec­tric tech­nol­o­gy.”

The HSIL lab allows air­craft design­ers to con­duct inte­gra­tion test­ing of all ele­ments of their elec­tri­fied pow­er­trains, includ­ing VerdeGo hybrid-elec­tric pow­er­plants, their own bat­tery packs, pow­er dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tems, con­trol sys­tems, and even down­stream elec­tric motors, result­ing in a ful­ly cus­tomized ‘iron bird’ or ‘cop­per bird’ test set­up.

Through its mod­u­lar sim­u­la­tion tools and hard­ware-in-the-loop archi­tec­ture, the HSIL enables rapid
recon­fig­u­ra­tion of pow­er demands, loads, and con­trol inputs to meet mis­sion-spe­cif­ic needs. VerdeGo’s
mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar invest­ment in these capa­bil­i­ties gives part­ners access to test­ing envi­ron­ments that
would oth­er­wise require sig­nif­i­cant inter­nal resources to repli­cate. It sup­ports full-scale test­ing in a true avi­a­tion envi­ron­ment, free from exter­nal tim­ing or sched­ul­ing lim­i­ta­tions.

VerdeGo’s cus­tomers oper­ate on accel­er­at­ed devel­op­ment time­lines, often adapt­ing air­craft orig­i­nal­ly
designed for bat­tery-elec­tric propul­sion. The HSIL sup­ports both large, ver­ti­cal­ly inte­grat­ed com­pa­nies and
emerg­ing inno­va­tors in advanc­ing rapid­ly toward flight readi­ness, while also serv­ing as a valu­able
inte­gra­tion and val­i­da­tion resource for com­po­nent man­u­fac­tur­ers.

Matthew Potvin, Direc­tor of Prod­uct Man­age­ment at Verdego Aero, added: “The HSIL deliv­ers val­ue to orga­ni­za­tions of all sizes, from estab­lished eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­ers and air­craft design­ers to teams rely­ing on strong com­po­nent part­ners to accel­er­ate their pro­grams. By inte­grat­ing air­craft pow­er­train ele­ments into the HSIL, part­ners gain a faster path­way to opti­mize their designs and mis­sion pro­files, mov­ing effi­cient­ly
toward real-world test­ing ahead of flight demon­stra­tions.”

The HSIL is more than a test facil­i­ty; Devel­op­ers work side-by-side with VerdeGo’s engi­neer­ing team on ground and sim­u­lat­ed flight tests. Part­ners also have the option to pro­gram their air­craft designs direct­ly into VerdeGo’s sim­u­la­tor, allow­ing pilots to train and val­i­date flight con­trol soft­ware with real hybrid propul­sion hard­ware-in-the-loop.

Pilots can expe­ri­ence the hybrid pow­er­plant respond­ing in real time to their con­trol inputs dur­ing
sim­u­lat­ed mis­sions, cre­at­ing a unique­ly authen­tic and data-rich test envi­ron­ment. Com­po­nent man­u­fac­tur­ers also ben­e­fit from access to the HSIL, where they can val­i­date propul­sion motors, bat­ter­ies,
and high-volt­age con­trol sys­tems with­in VerdeGo’s hybrid frame­work accel­er­at­ing com­pat­i­bil­i­ty and time
to mar­ket.

Dave Spitzer, Vice Pres­i­dent of Prod­uct Devel­op­ment at VerdeGo Aero, added: “We’re proud of how the HSIL has come togeth­er and excit­ed about the oppor­tu­ni­ties it cre­ates for advanc­ing hybrid-elec­tric avi­a­tion. These assets allow VerdeGo not only to val­i­date our prod­ucts, but also to test full high-volt­age archi­tec­tures under real-world con­di­tions. Our cul­ture is root­ed in rig­or­ous test­ing, and the HSIL is a key enabler as our indus­try takes its next step for­ward.”