Wealthy Helicopter Pilot Orders Archipelago Explorer Super-Yacht “with Bespoke Landing Pad for Axe eVTOL”

eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­er, SkyFly, announced this week that super-yacht builder, Arch­i­pel­ago, has gained an order from a wealthy heli­copter pilot, for an 80 ft alu­mini­um explor­er yacht with a bespoke designed land­ing pad on the top deck of this three-decked ves­sel for its Axe eVTOL, reports a press release. The joint announce­ment was made at Boot Düs­sel­dorf, the largest boat show in Europe. 

Jaap Rade­mak­er, CCO of Skyfly, com­ment­ed, “Guests can now get to shore with­out get­ting wet or being shak­en about, while enjoy­ing beau­ti­ful views from above. Weigh­ing only 650kg, the Axe can eas­i­ly oper­ate from a yacht like the A80, and with its USD180,000 base price it is much more cost effec­tive than a heli­copter.”

He con­tin­ued, “The Axe makes lit­tle noise and is easy to fly by both own­ers and supery­acht crews, so no pilot needs to be accom­mo­dat­ed aboard. Our cus­tomers also tell us that they want to get from the yacht to a plane trans­fer quick­ly and com­fort­ably, with­out los­ing time in traf­fic around the coast in the busiest sum­mer months. The eVTOL is a nat­ur­al and use­ful com­pan­ion for any supery­acht, sav­ing flight time and adding a spe­cial expe­ri­ence for guests.”

Skyfly, Aero­Volt to Car­ry Out “UK’s First Air­field-to-Air­field eVTOL Flight with Elec­tric Recharg­ing” 

The A80 super-yacht will also be equipped with a 24kW roof-mount­ed solar pan­el array and large bat­tery banks which pow­er all needs on board, includ­ing air con­di­tion­ing. This means the Axe can be charged while on-board.

Dr Stephen Weath­er­ley, CEO of Arch­i­pel­ago, remarked, “The A80 is an incred­i­bly ver­sa­tile boat, so any­one can oper­ate it. It doesn’t need a crew; can take a large pay­load; and boasts a top speed of 28–29 knots; with a 24kW of solar pow­er on the roof, mean­ing you can use it in hybrid diesel-elec­tric mode, full elec­tric or diesel.” Adding, “It’s a real­ly ver­sa­tile plat­form and I think it’s going to be great with the Axe on the roof. I just can’t wait to see the two of them togeth­er.” 

Dr Stephen Weath­er­ley and Jaap Rade­mak­er

The first manned flights of the Axe are sched­uled for March 2024. Mean­while, con­struc­tion of the bespoke A80 is to begin in May. The yacht and its eVTOL are expect­ed to star at the Cannes Boat Show in Sep­tem­ber 2025. 

For more infor­ma­tion

https://skyflytech.com/

https://www.archipelago-yachts.co.uk/

(Top image: Cred­it — SkyFly/Archipelago)

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