It’s here. Those vehicles in the cartoon show, The Jetsons; the ones in the sci-fi movies slicing between skyscrapers, they’ve become a reality and are less than five years away from full operation. One of those ingenious companies is Volocopter and they’ve introduced a new member to their family: VoloConnect.
Its mandate is to connect suburbs to cities utilizing its affordable, safe, efficient electric air taxi service for cities around the globe. The company has leveraged its experience from their two other air taxi prototypes, VoloCity and VoloDrone.
“With cities like Singapore, Paris, and Dubai, Volocopter has consistently and publicly demonstrated its expertise in electric flight for inner-city mobility,” Volocopter stated in a press release.
VoloConnect has longer missions and higher payloads. It seats four spaciously and has six electric motors and rotors, two propulsion fans and retractable landing gear. Maximum cruising speed is 250 km/h with a flight range of 100 kilometers based on current battery technology. As with the VoloCity, the company intends to work closely with The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to obtain Design Organization Approval.
To date, it is the only Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicle to achieve regulatory approval from EASA, which has one of the highest safety standards for aircraft in the world. The compact aircraft layout is naturally stable and highly efficient during flight while maintaining a slow stall speed. A version is being tested in Munich air space by Chief Engineer Sebastian Mores.
VoloConnect has an enhanced (10^-9) certification made specifically for eVTOLs. It means that there will be no fatal accident in 1 billion-flight hours.
“This is how safe the aircraft must be,” states Helena Treeck, spokesperson for Volocopter in an email.