The Volocopter 2X is a German two-seat, optionally-piloted,

multirotor A multirotor or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two lift-generating rotors. An advantage of multirotor aircraft is the simpler rotor mechanics required for flight control. Unlike single- and double-rotor helicopters which use complex ...

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

. The

personal air vehicle A personal air vehicle (PAV) is a proposed type of aircraft providing on-demand aviation services. The emergence of this alternative to traditional ground transport methods has been enabled by unmanned aerial vehicle technologies and electric pr ...

was designed and produced by Volocopter GmbH of

Bruchsal Bruchsal (; orig. Bruohselle, Bruaselle, historically known in English as Bruxhall; South Franconian: ''Brusel'') is a city at the western edge of the Kraichgau, approximately 20 km northeast of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg, ...

, and first introduced at the

AERO Friedrichshafen AERO Friedrichshafen is a trade show dedicated to European general aviation. It is held yearly in April on the shores of Lake Constance at the exhibition center of Friedrichshafen, Germany right next to Friedrichshafen Airport Friedrichshaf ...

airshow in 2017. The aircraft is sold complete and ready-to-fly. Volocopter was formerly known as E-volo.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 206. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. The design had its first flight on 17 November 2013.

Development

The two-seat project started in 2013, evolved from early single-seat Volocopter VC2 prototype flown in 2011. The two seat prototype is the VC-200 and the derived production model the 2X. An initial on-line fundraising effort in 2013 on Seedmatch raised

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

500,000 in 2 hours and 35 minutes, setting a new European Union record. The money was used to build the prototype, designated as the VC200. The company received investments of

25M in 2017 to bring the design to production, including from

Daimler AG The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactu ...

. The aircraft entered serial production in April 2018, being built under contract by German sailplane manufacturer DG Flugzeugbau.

Design

The aircraft was designed to comply with the European Class 6 microlight helicopter rules and be employed in

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

service in urban areas. It features 18 fixed-pitch propellers, each powered by its own

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate f ...

. Accommodation is two-seats-in side-by-side configuration in an enclosed cockpit with a windshield. It uses

skid landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

. The aircraft is made from

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

composites. The controls operate through a mesh polymer

fibre optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...

network fly-by-light system. The controls are a triple-redundant primary flight control unit, plus a dissimilar backup flight control unit and a

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

control. The stabilization system employs gyroscopes, acceleration sensors, magnetic field measurement sensors and manometers. Chip-maker

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

is involved in the integration of

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

technology into the design. Autonomous and remotely piloted control systems are under development. The propellers are powered by three-phase PM synchronous brushless DC electric motors and are mounted on a spoked composite wheel mounted above the cabin. The motors are powered by nine independent quick-change

lithium ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also see ...

, each one powering two motors. The batteries can be charged in 120 minutes normally or 40 minutes on quick-charge from the municipal power supply. The batteries use active air cooling. The propeller system can be dismantled for storage or ground transport. The propeller system has a diameter of . The aircraft has a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of for pilot, passenger and baggage. The aircraft includes a

ballistic parachute A ballistic parachute, ballistic reserve parachute, or emergency ballistic reserve parachute, is a parachute ejected from its casing by a small explosion, much like that used in an ejection seat. The advantage of the ballistic parachute over a co ...

. The 2X has a service ceiling of and a hover ceiling of . It produces an overflight noise level of 65 dB(A) at distance. The aircraft's price has not been announced.

Test flying

The design first flew uncrewed and indoors in an arena in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Germany, on 17 November 2013. The flight proved the design to have very low vibration levels. The prototype was shown at

in April 2015. The VC200 version was first flown outdoors, uncrewed and tethered, in November 2015. It was remotely controlled by CEO and company co-founder Alexander Zosel. The first crewed flight was in April 2016, flown by Alexander Zosel. He reported, "the flight was totally awesome. The machine was absolutely reliable, there were no vibrations, it was tremendous. The Volocopter immediately converted every movement I made with the joystick." Testing of the aircraft and software continued in 2016, establishing flight limits for the software. The design was employed in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...

in 2017, conducting uncrewed tests of a proposed

service. Officials in Dubai were drafting the air taxi standards and specifications for operations in Dubai. A short uncrewed indoor demonstration flight was conducted at the US

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event t ...

in January 2018.

Specifications (2X)

References

External links