Volocopter to Launch First European eVTOL Sandbox Program in 2026, Featuring its VoloCity and VoloXPro aircraft

Volo­copter will launch a Euro­pean sand­box pro­gram in 2026 to advance test­ing of its elec­tric air­craft, the VoloC­i­ty and the VoloX­Pro, under near-com­mer­cial oper­a­tion con­di­tions.

The ini­tia­tive will fea­ture a series of flight tri­als sim­u­lat­ing real-world oper­a­tions, while the sand­box will val­i­date oper­a­tional readi­ness and sup­port type cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for both air­craft through point-to-point mis­sions.

These tri­als will repli­cate key aspects of future UAM ser­vices, includ­ing flight pro­ce­dures, ground oper­a­tions, and pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence for VoloC­i­ty, as well as oper­a­tional use cas­es for VoloX­Pro in urban and region­al mobil­i­ty. 

David Bausek, CTO at Volo­copter, said: “This sand­box is the final stretch toward mak­ing elec­tric air taxis and ultra­light air­craft a real­i­ty in Europe.Testing VoloC­i­ty and VoloX­Pro in real-world envi­ron­ments with trust­ed part­ners like ADAC Luftret­tung ensures we’re ready for com­mer­cial launch.”

As part of this ini­tia­tive, Volocopter’s long-stand­ing part­ner ADAC Luftret­tung will col­lab­o­rate on select mis­sions, explor­ing poten­tial appli­ca­tions of elec­tric ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing (eVTOL) tech­nol­o­gy for emer­gency med­ical ser­vices and lays the basis for ADAC Luftrettung’s upcom­ing pilot tri­als, which will begin in select­ed regions. 

Frédéric Brud­er, CEO at ADAC Luftret­tung, said: “eVTOL Tech­nol­o­gy, espe­cial­ly Volocopter’s prod­ucts, could trans­form emer­gency response and region­al cov­er­age by enabling faster, qui­eter, and more sus­tain­able mis­sions. Par­tic­i­pat­ing in Volocopter’s sand­box pro­gram allows us to explore these pos­si­bil­i­ties first­hand.” 

Volocopter’s Euro­pean sand­box pro­gram marks a major mile­stone in the company’s jour­ney to bring sus­tain­able urban air mobil­i­ty to Euro­pean cities, with insights gained con­tribut­ing direct­ly to the roll­out of future VoloC­i­ty and VoloX­Pro ser­vices. 

Found­ed in 2011, Volo­copter is head­quar­tered in Bruch­sal, Ger­many, and oper­ates glob­al­ly with a mis­sion to trans­form urban trans­porta­tion.

Ear­li­er this year, Dia­mond Air­craft Indus­tries inte­grat­ed Volo­copter into its busi­ness port­fo­lio, which enables the Ger­man eVTOL OEM to reduce its cost, retain its work­force and focus on achiev­ing its cer­ti­fi­ca­ton mile­stones this year.

Fea­ture image cap­tion: From L‑R: David Bausek, CTO Volo­copter Tech­nolo­gies GmbH; Aaron Erd, Pro­jectlead Mul­ti­copter ADAC Luftret­tung gGmbH; Ulrich Amers­dorf­fer, CEO ADAC Helis­er­vice GmbH