23 January 2013
E-Volo, the German company which successfully flew the VC-1, an innovative electric-powered vertical-takeoff aircraft in 2011, has stated it is ready to build a two-person design.
According to Alexander Zosel, e-volo manager, the greatest challenge after technical realisation is to be able to place such an aircraft on the market. The company has said that the process is already underway by Germany’s transport ministry to create a new category and develop new regulations to allow the aircraft to fly. The relevant organisations will work together with the project team of e-volo on the creation of a new manufacturing specification for the Volocopter, including legal regulations and the training specifications for future pilots.
E-Volo hopes to achieve extensive endurance testing of the passenger cabin, the landing framework and the rotor array by this summer, so they can start test flights this year.
It is planned that at the end of the trial programme, a prototype certification of the VC200 in line with the newly created category of ultralight rotor aircraft named Volocopter will enable the future serial production.
The company plans to exhibit a full-size mock-up of its Volocopter at Aero 2013, in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from April 24-27. Germany’s federal ministry of economics and technology has granted the company a subsidy of about $2.6m to help cover the costs of the project.
You can watch an animated video of E-Volo’s new volocopter 2013 design <a href=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJWEOzYv63M’ target=’_blank’>here.</a>
<a href=’http://www.e-volo.com’ target=’_blank’>www.e-volo.com</a>
