Country for PR: United Kingdom
Contributor: PR Newswire Europe
Tuesday, October 22 2019 - 21:37
AsiaNet
Volocopter Air Taxi Flies Over Singapore's Marina Bay
SINGAPORE, Oct. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

Volocopter, the pioneer in Urban Air Mobility (UAM), successfully completed its 
first manned flight over Singapore's Marina Bay today. This was the last trial 
of a demanding test series to verify and validate the ability of Volocopter air 
taxis to fly over the area. Government authorities including the Ministry of 
Transport (MOT), the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), and the 
Economic Development Board (EDB) supported Volocopter in this testing phase and 
will continue to do so in the future. This flight kicks-off Volocopter's 
efforts to bring commercial air taxi services to Singapore. 

A 2X model of the company's test series flown by a pilot onboard was used. The 
flight covered a distance of approximately 1.5 km and lasted for two minutes at 
an average cruising height of 40 m. 

"The flight today in Singapore was the most advanced Volocopter flight yet and 
the piloted flight was as stable as ever. At the same time, we are showcasing a 
prototype of our full-scale VoloPort Infrastructure, allowing for a realistic 
demonstration of air taxi boarding and maintenance services. Never before have 
people been this close to experiencing what Urban Air Mobility in the city of 
tomorrow will feel like," says Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter.  

Leading up to the flight, the aircraft had undergone intensive testing in 
Germany for several months. Following which, a rigorous flight test program to 
verify the Volocopter 2X aircraft performance under local environment was 
conducted at Seletar Airport in accordance with CAAS. 

"Since late 2018, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has been 
working with Volocopter to facilitate this flight in Singapore. The Volocopter 
team went through a series of stringent evaluations to ensure that all the 
necessary safety requirements were met before the flight was allowed to take 
place. By working closely with companies such as Volocopter, we hope to 
facilitate innovations for beneficial uses whilst ensuring aviation and public 
safety," said Mr. Ho Yuen Sang, Director (Aviation Industry) from CAAS.

"Volocopter's decision to testbed its innovative air taxi in Singapore is 
testament to the opportunities and environment that Singapore provides. The 
Singapore Economic Development Board hopes to be an enabling partner for 
companies developing new mobility technologies such as autonomous vehicles and 
urban aerial mobility. We are happy to support Volocopter in their development 
plans and hope that this is a first step towards the creation of more exciting 
business and job opportunities in Singapore," said Mr. Tan Kong Hwee, Assistant 
Managing Director, EDB.

At the ITSWC, Volocopter and their partner Skyports [https://skyports.net/] 
built the first VoloPort prototype on the floating dock in Marina Bay. 
VoloPorts are the only physical infrastructure required for air taxis and they 
are one important step to commencing operations in cities. They are designed to 
provide passengers with a seamless air taxi experience that is safe, secure, 
and integrated into existing infrastructure.

Volocopter opened an office in Singapore in January 2019 and has started to 
build up a local team to support South East Asia expansion plans. The company 
has recently presented their VoloCity – the next generation eVTOL air taxi 
which is designed to comply with EASA requirements. With their recently 
announced Series C funding round the company will bring the VoloCity to 
commercial certification. 

About Volocopter GmbH

Volocopter is building the world's first sustainable and scalable urban air 
mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services to megacities 
worldwide. With the VoloCity, the company is developing the first fully 
electric "eVTOL" aircraft in certification to safely and quietly transport 
passengers within cities. Volocopter leads and cooperates with partners in 
infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management to build the ecosystem 
necessary to 'Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life.'

In 2011, Volocopter performed the first-ever manned flight of a purely electric 
multicopter and has since showcased numerous public flights with its full-scale 
aircraft. The most notable have been the public test flights at Singapore's 
Marina Bay in October 2019 and the world's first autonomous eVTOL flight in 
Dubai 2017. 

Founded in 2011 by Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel, Volocopter has 150 
employees in offices in Bruchsal, Munich, and Singapore. The company is managed 
by CEO Florian Reuter, CTO Jan-Hendrik Boelens, and CFO Rene Griemens, and has 
raised a total of 85 million euro in equity. Volocopter's investors include 
Daimler, Geely, Intel Capital, BtoV, and Manta Ray Ventures. Find out more at: 
www.volocopter.com.

Video - 
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1015163/Volocopter_air_taxi___Singapore.mp4 
Photo - 
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1015161/Volocopter_air_taxi.jpg         
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1014685/Volocopter_Logo.jpg  

Press Contact: 
Helena Treeck 
+49-151-2372-1517 
press@volocopter.com

Source: Volocopter GmbH
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