Volocopter Unveils New City Air Taxi

Volocopter recently unveiled VoloCity, the fourth-generation of its air taxi model. The German company learned what worked and what didn’t from 1,000 test flights of its previous Volocopter version. Some of those test flights took place in Dubai, which has been a leading player in the emerging field of flying cars.

The new electrical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) meets the safety standards specified by the European Aviation Safety Agency. Designed to be an inner-city air taxi, VoloCity reaches speeds of 68 mph and travels a distance of about 22 miles.

New Features of the VoloCity

Much has improved on Volocopter’s flying car over its four versions, but some things remain the same. It still has room for two people with hand luggage, 18 rotors, redundancy in all critical systems, and low noise. What’s new is better flight efficiency due to aerodynamically shaped rotor beams and improved flight stability.

“The VoloCity is our most powerful Volocopter yet,” said Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter. “It is rigorously designed to meet the demands of urban air mobility and incorporates all requirements of the SC-VTOL certification standard established by EASA in July 2019. It is a result of all insights we have gathered from our extensive testing programs over the past years.”

The company’s next step is to create a take-off and landing infrastructure and work with interested cities to integrate into their air traffic management systems. Possible candidates include London, Los Angeles, and Singapore.

The next public test flight of VoloCity will take place in Singapore before the end of 2019. Volocopter will also display its first VoloPort prototype with its partner, Skyports.