Update from January 3, 2025:
As wallstreet-online.de reported on January 2, 2025, the air taxi manufacturer Volocopter has currently filed for bankruptcy and is now urgently seeking investors to restructure the company. The goal is to develop a restructuring plan by the end of February to secure the necessary financial resources for market entry.
However, CEO Dirk Hoke, who will leave the company at the end of February, is quoted in the report as saying that Volocopter is “well positioned technologically and in the certification process”. Business operations are to be maintained, with the aim of securing jobs and making the company competitive. SeaHelp will report on current developments at this point.
A quick trip by air taxi to the marina: no problem – VoloCity aircraft from the German company Volocopter, based in Bruchsal in Baden, will soon be flying over Mallorca. The Spanish airport operator Aena wants to organize “test flights by early 2026 at the latest”.
2 seats, 18 rotors: the VoloCity air taxi is an all-electric aircraft with the ability to take off and land vertically. As early as 2011, Volocopter was the first company to build and fly a first prototype of this brand new aircraft type.
The innovative VoloCity design was developed to meet the demanding aviation standards and requirements of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and has already received DOA (Design Organization Approval).
The company says it is currently working on the type certificate (TC). The VoloCity air taxi has already been tested in several prototype iterations in over 2,000 test flights; the first flights are currently still piloted (1 pilot plus 1 passenger) and will pave the way for a future fully autonomous service, the company says.
The Spanish airport operator Aena wants to use the test flights to show that Volocopter aircraft are safe.
Now the Spanish airport operator Aena is venturing a move and wants to use two test flights to show that Volocopter aircraft are safe and to test protocols for the flight, reports mallorcazeitung.es on November 22, one of the flights should go from Palma to Menorca. Aena announced this at a mobility congress in Madrid, writes MZ; “the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026” was mentioned as the date for the test flights.
According to Aena, the two flights – the second of which will take place between Granada and Malaga – should lead to “the authorities reducing their reservations about allowing air taxis”. MZ quotes Juan Manuel Cordovés, director of Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport, as saying that “air taxis could be introduced in Europe within the next three to five years”. Numerous pilot projects are already underway, including some in Germany, where there are several air taxi manufacturers.
Volocopter is a pioneer of so-called UAM – Urban Air Mobility
Volocopter GmbH from Bruchsal describes itself as a pioneer of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), an emerging branch of all-electric aviation. Their aim is to make the “dream of electric flight come true”. Air taxis and passenger aircraft should be able to “offer alternative, affordable transport solutions”, which are emission-free, sustainable and efficient.
The company’s vision: “By offering fully electric flights over megacities around the world, we will create more space on the roads, thus alleviating traffic congestion, pollution and other problems in big cities. By connecting major transport hubs, we can transport passengers through big cities more easily and sustainably than before.”
Technical specifications VoloCity air taxi:
capacity 2 seats, target certificate EASA SC-VTOL, extended category, max. take-off mass (MTOM) ~ 1,000 kg, range ~ 20 km, max. flight speed 54 kn / 100 km/h, cruising speed 48 kn / 90 km/h , primary structural material composite, overall height 2.7 m, diameter of rotor rim incl. rotor 11.3 m, diameter of a single rotor 2.3 m, number of rotors 18, power supply battery electric, battery type lithium ion, charging system: battery change. Charging in external charging station. More information: volocopter.com.
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