Volocopter – the Elevator Pitch.
Born in Bruchsal, Germany in 2012, Volocopter has developed a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle purposed for autonomous air taxi services. Basically, it’s a giant drone you can ride to work. Talk about smart mobility. Notably, the fully electric, two-person transporter opens up mobility opportunities in increasingly cramped cities.
How Volocopter will shape smart cities.
Science fiction books and movies often portray flying cars, which taps into the societal desire of accessibility to flight. While the Volocopter is not a flying car per se, its goal is still to achieve the end of making flight accessible. Using flight in urban areas opens up a third dimension for travel and traffic.
Why we’re watching.
Overall, Volocopter has had a big year. The Volocopter 2x had its first successful test flight in Stuttgart in September. Further, its collaboration with Skyports has resulted in the Voloport, an urban landing pad for autonomous VTOL’s. Weeks ago, they hosted a demonstration of the first Voloport in Singapore.
‘There are three major aspects that need to be in place for urban air mobility to become reality: the aircraft, the infrastructure, and the necessary regulation for both. Standing inside the VoloPort makes Urban Air Mobility feel extremely real and demonstrates that air taxi operations are not a faraway future, but very feasible to achieve within the next three to five years. Today marks a fantastic step forward!,’ says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, following the Voloport demonstration.
Finally, the company has announced a collaboration with John Deere to make a heavy utility drone for agricultural use. With its ties to government agencies and real world execution, Volocopter seems to be a leading the runway to urban air travel.