{"id":22394,"date":"2022-06-12T13:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-12T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=22394"},"modified":"2022-06-12T13:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-12T13:01:22","slug":"volocopters-4-seater-aircraft-takes-first-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/evtol\/volocopters-4-seater-aircraft-takes-first-flight\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Volocopter’s 4-Seater Aircraft Takes First Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – Volocopter 4-Seater VoloConnect – Test Flight Image \u00a9 Volocopter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban air mobility (UAM) pioneer Volocopter announced that\nit has achieved another milestone to bring UAM to life: its fixed-winged\npassenger aircraft, the VoloConnect, completed its first flight in May 2022.\nThis accomplishment makes Volocopter the only eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff\nand landing aircraft) developer worldwide to have an entire fleet of distinct\naircraft configurations undergoing flight tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volocopter’s third product solution, the VoloConnect, offers\nfurther and faster journeys than any other Volocopter aircraft to date, with a\nrange of over 60 mi and flight speeds above 155 mph. The passenger plane’s\nextended range and higher payload will bring business travelers and commuters\nbeyond the city center on routes like Burbank to Huntington Beach in Los\nAngeles, CA. With the VoloCity and VoloConnect air taxi designs fulfilling\ndemands for metropolitan flights and suburban connections in densely populated\nregions respectively, Volocopter is ready to serve a broader range of\npassengers’ flight needs. The VoloConnect is targeting a 2026 entry into\nservice, while the VoloCity is targeting commercial launch in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Having a whole family of electric aircraft in the test\nflight phase is a pioneering feat,” said Florian Reuter, Volocopter CEO.\n“Volocopter’s leadership in the industry stems from announcing plans and\nthen delivering on them visibly with public test flights. Our technology platform\nis the foundation for our family of aircraft approach and has proven to deliver\nresults at an astounding speed. Volocopter is bringing these innovative designs\noff the ground, into the air, and then to cities worldwide!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dedicated team in Munich, led by Sebastian Mores, Chief\nEngineer, VoloConnect, is responsible for this success to bring the VoloConnect\nprototype to life. “This is an extraordinary moment for us \u2013 seeing the\nVoloConnect soar to the sky marks the achievement of one of our key milestones\nand demonstrates just what we are capable of in a short time and in line with\nthe company’s overall strategy for crewed and uncrewed aircraft. Furthermore,\nnew technologies will be tested that will gradually be implemented during the\noverall program development,” said Mores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volocopter designed the VoloConnect and its other eVTOL\naircraft to meet the highest aviation safety standards according to EASA\n(European Aviation Safety Agency). The prototype completed its first flight in\nMay 2022 after just 17 months in the making and performed a few maneuvers for 2\nminutes and 14 seconds during its first flight. The prototype has all the\nplanned aerodynamics and performance features of the future commercial product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The VoloConnect is a lift-and-cruise aircraft optimized for\nmissions beyond the urban and suburban space. Keeping moving parts to a\nminimum, its six rotors facilitate vertical takeoff, while two electric fans in\ncombination with uplift-creating wings ensure high forward speeds. Its\nprototype is currently passing a demanding series of flight tests to verify\nthat the aircraft and its systems are in line with performance limits and\nprepared for the subsequent development. This phase encompasses low-speed,\ntransition, high-speed, and engine failure testing for automated and later\nautonomous flights \u2013 all standard-issue tests for eVTOL passenger aircraft\nmanufacturers. Within the first three test flights of this campaign, the team\nwas able to verify a significant portion of the eVTOL’s envelope with forward\nspeeds up to 40 mph and 28 mph sideward flight speeds during tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VoloConnect is poised to boost Volocopter’s total\naddressable UAM market, alongside its existing aircraft family members, the\nVoloDrone and VoloCity. The technological differences between the VoloCity and\nVoloConnect passenger aircraft abound. Important to note are their unique\ndesigns for their specific flight missions, with the multirotor VoloCity air\ntaxi poised to serve intracity routes, while its larger lift-and-cruise sibling\nwill focus on longer urban and suburban missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – Volocopter 4-Seater VoloConnect – Test Flight Image \u00a9 Volocopter Urban air mobility (UAM) pioneer Volocopter announced that it has achieved another milestone to bring UAM to life: its fixed-winged passenger aircraft, the VoloConnect, completed its first flight in May 2022. This accomplishment makes Volocopter the only eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evtol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Volocopter-4-seat-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22398,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22394\/revisions\/22398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}