Volocopter unveiled its eVTOL aircraft, the VoloConnect, at EBACE Connect.
This craft is designed to connect suburbs to cities and complements the company’s existing family of aircraft for the intra-city mission. As VoloConnect has the capacity to travel longer distances, it joins Volocopter’s aircraft family and extends the company’s UAM ecosystem coverage to the suburbs. VoloConnect’s hybrid lift and push design is expected to achieve certification within the next 5 years.
Volocopter takes a holistic approach to UAM by developing a full ecosystem that connects the necessary components to offer electric flight in cities. This includes partnerships with Aéroports de Paris, Microsoft Azure, Lufthansa Industry Solutions, and many more. Additionally, Volocopter offers multicopter and fixed wing designs that can be used for passenger and cargo transportation.
VoloConnect enhances Volocopter’s vehicle line up and extends its UAM ecosystem coverage from the city to the suburban areas. The new aircraft will integrate into the company’s VoloIQ digital platform infrastructure to offer an additional mission for longer routes.
VoloConnect uses a hybrid lift and push design to transport up to four passengers electrically on routes of 100 km at a speed of 180 km/h, with a top speed of ~250 km/h. The aircraft layout is compact for urban missions, and is naturally stable and highly efficient during forward flight while maintaining a low stall speed. Volocopter’s Munich-based team of experts, led by Chief Engineer Sebastian Mores, have been working on the aircraft for over two years and filed several patents for its technology. They are already flying multiple scaled prototypes of VoloConnect and are quickly progressing towards testing full scale prototypes.
VoloConnect target vehicle specifications include:
Infographic courtesy of VolConnect
