The US firm Archer has 100 orders for its eVTOL by United Airlines worth more than a billion dollars which will be used as electric air taxis ferrying people from O'Hare International Airport and downtown Chicago. On Monday, the French startup Ascendance Flight Technologies announced another 110 orders for its Atea eVTOL, taking the total to 505. The market has consolidated a bit and today we have real prototypes and it is becoming a reality," said Jean-Louis Rassineux, a senior partner at Deloitte responsible for the aerospace and defence sectors. "Four years ago it was still a very experimental sector.
A recent study by the Deloitte consultancy found the sector attracted 6 billion euros in investment in 2021, before falling to 2.7 billion in 2022 after the pandemic hit. Whether on not eVTOL aircraft become as easy to take as an Uber is an open question, but the aerospace industry is taking their potential impact seriously and for the first time they have their own dedicated space at the airshow. In addition to selling aircraft, Volocopter will manage the routes with an app that will enable online reservations. The company has already received 300 pre-orders from private firms for its eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft. "It's a challenge but we're very close to the commercial phase," he said. "It's a market not easy to enter, you have high investments," said Christian Bauer, the company's chief financial officer. Volocopter has ploughed $600 million into its air taxi - an expensive endeavour as it has yet to be made available to consumers. Volocopter is waiting for the greenlight from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for permission to fly by spring 2024.
Ile-de-France president Valerie Pecresse said the region will spend one million euros to build the barge. The air taxi will fly between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and nearby Paris-Le Bourget Airport as well as a heliport near Versailles and a "vertiport" installed on a barge in the Seine river in southeast Paris. The company has been working on the project with Groupe ADP, which operates Paris airports, state-owned metro and bus operator RATP, and the Ile-de-France region government.ĪDP chief executive Edward Arkwright said more than 20 flights spanning 200 kilometres have taken place. Volocopter has been conducting test flights in the Paris region for more than a year as it preps for the Olympics. "The irony is for helicopter pilots, they will have to unlearn many very clever skills and learn to fly an aircraft simply again, because it's much simpler to fly than, say, a helicopter," Stone said. It has a very clever digital flight control system," said VoloCity pilot Paul Stone, who used to test fighter jets for Britain's Royal Navy.Įxperienced helicopter and airplane pilots will be trained to fly the VoloCity, he said. "The good news is (that) it's very simple to fly. With a maximum airspeed of 110 kilometres (68 miles) per hour, the 18-rotor aircraft has room for a pilot and a passenger. Such futuristic "flying taxis" are among the star turns of this year's aerospace industry event as they move closer to the day when they can be used by the public.įor the VoloCity made by German firm Volocopter, the next stop is the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, when it plans to ferry passengers across the French capital - more than a decade after its first test flight. Barely making a buzz, a two-seat helicopter powered by an electric battery landed softly on the tarmac at the Paris Air Show after a 15-minute flight.
0 kommentar(er)
