23 February 2021
The company behind the PAL-V flying car has agreed the full certification basis with the European Aviation Safety Agency after more than ten years of testing and development. This follows the PAL-V receiving official approval for road use.
The final step before the Dutch company can start delivering flying cars is to demonstrate compliance.
“Getting a flying car to the market is hard. It takes at least 10 years”, said Robert Dingemanse, PAL-V’s CEO.
“Although we are experienced entrepreneurs, we learned that in aviation everything is exponentially stricter. Next to the aircraft, all aspects of the organization, including suppliers and maintenance parties must be certified.”
As long ago as 2009 PAL-V agreed with EASA to use the Certification Specifications for Small Rotorcraft (CS-27) as a starting point for the development of the certification basis.
PAL-V worked together with EASA to amend the complete list of more than 1,500 criteria to make it applicable for the PAL-V. The list was published last year for review by industry experts and the final version was published last week.
Cockpit or cabin? PAL-V is a luxurious two-seater. Photos: PAL-V
PAL-V’s Head of Airworthiness, Cees Borsboom, said, “I’m proud to see the results of our work. We can now speed up the completion of the compliance demonstration phase.
“It’s hard to grasp the amount of work required to certify an aircraft. The sign-off of 1,500 requirements already in 2012, before starting manned test flights, was the beginning. The development of the requirements started in 2009.
“More than 10 years of analysis, test data, flight tests, and drive tests, led to this important milestone.
“In parallel, we already started compliance demonstration to obtain the type certificate, which will be followed by delivery of vehicles to our customers.”
The EASA type certificate is valid for Europe and is also accepted in 80% of the world market, including the US and China.
