Volocopter

Singapore-based ride-share firm Grab is carrying out a feasibility study on urban air mobility (UAM) with Volocopter in south-east Asia. 

Volocopter has raised €50 million to help commercially launch its VoloCity air taxi within the next few years. Automotive company Zhejiang Geely Holding led the funding round and is partnering with Volocopter to develop urban air mobility in China. Li Shufu, Geely Holding chairman, says: “Geely is transitioning from being an automotive manufacturer to a mobility technology group, investing in and developing a wide range of next-generation technologies.” Looking ahead, Volocopter expects to close

Volocopter has trialled an air taxi at the Helsinki International Airport in Finland, integrating into the air traffic management (ATM) and unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) system. Within the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Programme, this demonstration is the final part of the Gulf of Finland (GOF) U-Space project showing how ATM and UTM systems enable urban air mobility (UAM). Maria Tamm, project coordinator from Estonian Air Navigation Services, says rules for using very low-level ai

Volocopter has unveiled VoloCity, an on-demand air taxi for cities which it claims has a calculated range of 35km and airspeed of 110 km/h. Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, says the air taxi is a “result of all the insights we have gathered from our extensive testing programmes over the past years. With the VoloCity we will open the first commercial routes and bring urban air mobility to life.” The company says the air taxi features aerodynamically shaped rotor beams and a stabiliser to increase safet

Volocopter has partnered with Skyports to build a landing pad for air taxis on the run-up public flight trials in Singapore during the second half of 2019. Volocopter says its Volo-Ports are designed to provide passengers with a safe air taxi experience and allow industry regulators to interact with the infrastructure and provide feedback. The Volo-Ports are also expected to: • Enable real-life testing of the full customer journey to perfect the passenger experience. • Showcase planned customer service

German urban air taxi manufacturer Volocopter has signed a deal with Honeywell to jointly develop new navigation and automatic landing systems. They will be used on Volocopter’s vertical take-off and landing aircraft - perhaps as early as this year, the companies suggest. “A key goal of our collaboration is to fly a Honeywell inertial measurement-based attitude reference system solution in one of our Volocopters in 2019,” says Jan Hendrik Boelens, chief technology officer, Volocopter. Urban air mob

Volocopter has joined forces with Fraport to develop concepts for the ground infrastructure required to allow air taxis at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. Volocopter says its partnership with German airport manager Fraport will focus on integrating what it calls ‘Volocopter Ports’ into existing infrastructure. The company believes that these could be used in the future to serve as a link between existing urban transportation junctions and provide connections to and from the airport. The Volocopter

Quantum XYZ is seeking to use SureFly’s eight-rotor hybrid ‘octocopters’ to launch an air taxi service in Los Angeles. SureFly, a subsidiary of US technology company Workhorse, is currently pursuing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) type certification for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Quantum intends to submit an application to become a FAA-certified urban VTOL air carrier. The company’s president, Tony Thompson, says: “Once SureFly receives FAA Type certification, we

Electricity and gas company SP Group says it will build a network of 1,000 electric vehicle (EV) chargers in Singapore by 2020 to meet public demand. Wong Kim Yin, SP group chief executive officer, says the initiative will enable greater adoption of EVs, help its customers go green and save energy and cost. The deployment will include 250 high-powered direct current (DC) chargers which are expected to offer power ratings up to 350kW to support EV models with bigger battery capacities and longer driv

Volocopter will trial its air taxis in Singapore’s urban environments in the second half of 2019. The initiative is expected to lead to public demonstration flights. The company says the eVtols, based on drone technology, can carry two passengers for a distance up to 30 km. These air taxis can manoeuvre safely around skyscrapers to ensure a smooth ride for passengers, Volocopter adds. Volocopter will work with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to establish the scope of the trials