Along with VoloConnect, VoloCopter, VoloDrones, VoloPorts and VoloIQ, VoloCity is part of the German company’s ambitious plans to “bring urban mobility to your life”.
Backed by Geely, Merecedes Benz, Intel Capital and Blackrock among others, Volocopter certainly does not lack ambition, no matter how big the technical, financial and certification challenge to bring their integrated eVTOL vision to life.
Founded in 2011 and with an initial focus on Munich and Singapore, Volocopter’s plans are impressive and may well be one of the front runners in a very crowded field of eVTOL start-ups, many of them also very well funded and with similar ambitions to revolutionize air mobility.
Volocopter is also one of the few high-profile eVTOL OEMs who haven’t yet gone for a SPAC-based public listing in order to raise capital, and actually cancelled well-publicized plans to list in November 2021.
Notwithstanding this pre-certification capital turbulence, Volocopter has raised €153m in March 2022 in a Series E funding round which gave it a pre-money valuation of US$1.7 billion and total funds raised of US$579m.
With certification scheduled for mid-2024, few will bet against it.
On 23 May 2022 at EBACE 2022 in Geneva, Bombardier announced the longest ever range business jet with the launched of the Global 8000. Yes, it looks great, will probably sell very well – even at US$78m apiece base price – and will eclipse Gulfstream’s G700 in the ultra-long range battle – at least for now.
However, perhaps the more significant aspect of this announcement was an accompanying video showing a 28 May 2021 test flight for the new variant that not only used Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) but actually passed Mach 1, the speed of sound and invariably described as supersonic flight.
Accompanied by a NASA F/A-18 chase plane, the faster than sound speed segment only lasted a few seconds – but it does represent a technological breakthrough for the Canadian manufacturer and for business aviation in general.
Whilst the Global 8000 is officially scheduled to be certified and enter into service in 2025 using a maximum operating speed (MMO) of MO.94, the fact that the aircraft is technically capable of Mach 1 speed whilst using SAF is truly remarkable.
This combination of supersonic speed capability, ultra-long range comfort and efforts to decarbonize will grab the business aircraft headlines – and turn buyer’s heads.
Should existing Global 7500 owners (and other aircraft owners) not wish to splash the cash on a new 8000, they can also retrofit and upgrade their existing 7500 aircraft, reportedly for a modest US$3m.
Every once in a while, an aircraft design comes along that just looks great and feels right. In the case of the Ascendance Flight Technologies ATEA concept, the 8-fan hybrid design may just fit that sensibility.
Founded in 2018 by four former graduates of France’s top aerospace and business schools and with backgrounds in Airbus’s eFAN technology project, the company also boasts Board members from the likes of Renault and Safran.
With over two hundred eVTOL designs now in development worldwide, it seems obvious that not all will emerge past concept stage, never mind get past certification and be brought successfully to market.
Although not yet a fully electric design and with it 100% zero emissions, (ATEA is suggesting 80% reduction in carbon emissions initially), Ascendance Flight Technologies bring a very credible technological pedigree with a heavyweight board presence to steady the ship in what is likely be a very turbulent eVTOL marketplace.
With all the raging hype about eVTOLs and focus on zero CO2 emissions in aviation, a small start-up in Gloucestershire Airport called Electro Flight (and a rather large aircraft engine manufacturer based in Derby) along with an electric motor manufacturer called YASA – now owned by Mercedes) quietly set about using battery propulsion to break the world speed record for electric aircraft. Not only did they break the record, they smashed it – beating the previous record by an astonishing 132 mph.
Using a modified Nemesis NXT kit aircraft, the Rolls-Royce ACCEL reached a speed of 345 mph (556 kmh) for the required 3 kilometers (under the FAI World Air Sports Federation rules) during its total flight time of around 15 minutes on 16 November 2021. ACCEL took a mere 202 seconds to climb to 3,000 meters (another record) and at one point, actually reached a top speed of 387 mph (623 km/h).
Under normal conditions, the aircraft has enough power to fly the aircraft from London to Paris on a single charge. With 6,480 battery cells on board, it also has enough battery power to charge 7,500 mobile phones, uses the same thermal protection casing (Portuguese cork) as you find in bottled wine and has the equivalent motor power that you find in a 535 bhp supercar. Serious enough for you?
As Phill O’Dell, Director of Flight Operations Rolls-Royce and pilot of ACCEL’s record-breaking flight said: “Electric aviation is absolutely and utterly here to stay.”
In any event, who would have thought being green could also be so fast?
The world of private aviation in Dubai is well known for truly unique displays of wealth and excess – and for truly unique marketing ideas to impress and delight the well-heeled.
This combination from Jetex and Bugatti is very original, executed perfectly, reflects beautifully the brand values and attention to detail of both companies and well, it will make you smile.
Even if it’s highly unlikely that someone stepping off a BBJ will be tempted by a spin in the Bugatti Baby II to the Jetex Terminal when the alternative is a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
And yet, perhaps just once….
Clever, original marketing from two great brands. (With a little help from RR and the BBJ).
P300E + P911 Turbo S. The Sum = More Than The Parts.
When two iconic brands that inspire a passionate following come together to provide a limited edition ground-air package, most aficionados who can afford the “Duet” as they’re being marketed will form a very fast but safe queue.
Some might argue that Brazilian and German heritages might not be natural bedfellows. However this bespoke combination of the Embraer Phenom 300E and the Porsche 911 Turbo S provides a bright light in dark pandemic times for sports car lovers who use private jets and vice-versa.
The ten (only) buyers who commit to this unique pairing will get lots of matching “bits ‘n bobs” such as Porsche seats redesigned to mirror the cockpit seats, the car clock with artificial horizon “instrumentation” and the new owners even get matching exterior paint schemes as well as plenty of other lovely touches such as a “No Step” door sill lettering in the Porsche to mirror the safety lettering on aircraft wings.
Whilst there have always been glossy images of sports cars paired with private jets, none have taken it to this level of design, detail, style, originality and commitment. Expect it to be sold out – very fast.
The Lilium Jet project has been in development since 2015 in Munich. According to their website, Lilium has attracted $375m in funding to date and currently (as of mid-2020) has over 500 employees.
With a plan including “Vertiports”, the Lilium Jet expects to be no louder than an electric car on the ground although expects to be as loud as a “passing truck” on take-off.
The Lilium Jet has 36 individual motors and four wings for directional flight control. Lilium are planning to certify and manufacture to the same regulatory standards as today’s commercial aircraft.
Carrying four passengers and with one pilot, the Lilium Jet is hoping to achieve 300km/h top speed and fly for about an hour – hence the tag: “All-electric regional air mobility”. Lilium are planning to formally launch commercial operations no later than 2025.
The electric aircraft and VTOL space is highly competitive, even in today’s COVID-19 world where commercial air travel is so compromised. A quick look at www.transportup.com gives a good indication as to how challenging this arena will and has already become.
One thing is clear: Lilium’s ambition is impressive.
With the current uncertainty over the future of business aviation as well as commercial aviation, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of the enormous technical progress and advances in production technology that aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus have achieved over the years.
The Airbus 350-1000 (XWB) is the most recent and arguably the most remarkable example of a large commercial aircraft Type Certification.
The process involved is lengthy, very expensive and extremely labour intensive. It is also an intensely technical achievement, all of which is subject to ultimate approval from regulators in Europe, United States, Canada and other aviation authorities around the world.
No matter how much detailed planning and virtual design work is completed even before actual manufacturing begins, process turbulence to completion is pretty much inevitable given the complexities involved.
Even after a Type Certificate is approved for a specific aircraft type, there is no guarantee it will keep its approval – the difficulties experienced by Boeing over the 737-MAX are well documented.
Nevertheless, the video attached from Airbus charting the A350-1000 process gives a flavour of whats involved. Over 1600 Flight Test Hours after being first assembled, it was granted its Type Certificate on 21 November 2017, exactly and perhaps amazingly, on schedule.
With all the hype over Urban Air Taxis, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and eVTOLs, sometimes it is much more enjoyable to watch when the creative genius of the human brain can create something truly extraordinary but apparently simple.
What if an Italian University created a robotic walking dog which could pull an Avanti Evo business aircraft weighing well over 3 tonnes with no human assistance?
A team of Italian engineers and scientists have created such an “animal”. The successful results, seen in the attached video, can only be admired and applauded.
The robot dog is well matched of course by the remarkable and still unique Piaggio Aerospace Avanti aircraft, itself a wonderful creation from the 1980’s and well before its time in terms of radical design and aerodynamic innovation. The current iteration, the Avanti Evo, is still going strong today in spite of some recent corporate turbulence. In many ways, it is still ahead of its time.
Sonny from I,Robot won’t lose any sleep though and it’s unlikely this Italian robotic walking dog will replace aircraft tugs any time soon but very well done nonetheless to all the good folks in Genoa who made this happen.
With Tesla shutting its Model 3 showrooms and Amazon launching cashier-less food stores in Canada, the world of retail marketing is in flux. Who knows how the world will buy high-end products in future years, especially when it comes to demonstrating (and selling) private aircraft.
Selling a multi-million dollar long-range aircraft is a very different challenge to selling a bottle of ketchup (or even an electric car) so what does Gulfstream Aerospace do? Open a fully-fledged demonstration showroom in downtown Manhattan of course.
Clearly not every business aircraft manufacturer can afford to invest like this or could justify such an expensive city-centre location but it seems Gulfstream see a distinctive marketing advantage in providing such a customer-led initiative.
It’s a long way from Savannah but it certainly looks like a gutsy move. And a smart one.
With a tip o’ the hat to BJT for the attached video and a quiet nod to The Jet Business in London who arguably led the way with the concept.
