The race for urban air mobility is advancing by leaps and bounds and, although the bets place the start of the official flights of the eVTOL (acronym for vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with electric propulsion) in 2025, there are some companies that stand out and bet for starting much earlier. Next year, no more, no less.
One of the most advanced in this sense is the German ‘start-up’ Volocopter, which ensures that it will start air taxi services in Europe in 2024 with its latest creation: the VoloCity, an extraordinarily silent and sustainable two-seater that flies with 18 battery-powered rotors. If they succeed, it would be a milestone achieved in record time.
According to the manufacturer, Paris will be the chosen city where VoloCity will officially begin to offer its urban air mobility routes and it will do so by opening in a setting as incomparable as the 2024 Olympic Games.
The motors of the new flying vehicle are powered by nine rechargeable batteries. Volocopter promises fast operating times thanks to its interchangeable battery system. The air taxi incorporates state-of-the-art air technology and flight controls, facilitated by a computer that integrates 100 microprocessors. In this way, smooth movements and a high level of safety are guaranteed both in the air and during takeoff and landing operations.
There is a special connection between the German aviation start-up and the French capital. In the summer of 2021, the eVTOL prototype known as the Volocopter 2X completed a three-minute flight during the Paris Air Forum. Those three minutes were enough for the prototype to travel 500 meters at a speed of 30 km/h and at a height of 30 meters. It was, without a doubt, a historic moment for the emerging electric urban air mobility sector in Europe.
A year later, in November 2022, a demonstration flight with passengers was also carried out in France to inaugurate the first fully integrated vertiport terminal (as eVTOL takeoff and landing strips are called) on the continent.
Located at the Pontoise-Cormeilles aerodrome near Paris, it has become a test bed for technologies related to upcoming air urban mobility operations. Skyports, one of Volocopter’s main partners, built the vertiport. Both companies have developed a platform called VoloIQ, intended as an operating system for future vertiports.
On the other hand, Volocopter has also signed an agreement to be able to operate its new VoloCity air taxi in Italy, where it will initially transport passengers between the center of the city of Rome and Fiumicino airport.
While we await the arrival of these electric vehicles that will undoubtedly revolutionize the way we move around the city, you can enjoy the video with the first test flight made by one of Volocopter’s creations.
