Page 11 - AAA January / February 2023 Latest Magazine | GBP

Dream Start for Eve Making Their Presence Felt
The market is ready to explode if one were to go by early demand. In November last year, Eviation, which man-
Eve Air Mobility, an Embraer subsidiary, ended 2022 with a back- ufactures the nine-seater all-electric Alice,
log to 2,770 eVTOLs; a big spike from the 1,910 conditional sales announced that the order book for the air-
agreements it announced in June. The estimated value of the plane had passed a total value of US$ 2 billion.
backlog is more than US$6 billion. In what can be seen as the Eviation, which has its eyes on the commuter
first signs of the UAM market extending its reach to the defence and cargo markets, will produce three Alice
sector, the company received a non-binding order from Embraer variants – one a nine-passenger commuter,
and BAE Systems for up to 150 eVTOLs that will be used for the other a six-passenger executive cabin, and
defense and security applications. The company’s varied cus- an eCargo version. All configurations support
tomer lineup includes fixed wing and helicopter operators as well two crew members. Designed for flights rang-
as rideshare providers. The company is yet to specify when the ing from 150 miles to 250 miles, Alice has a
company expects to begin flight testing a prototype. maximum operating speed of 260 knots. The
aircraft, which successfully completed its first
In July last year at the Farnborough Airshow, the company flight in September last year, can carry up to
unveiled its first full-sized cabin mock-up of its eVTOL. Behind 2,500 lbs in the passenger version and 100
the cockpit of the piloted aircraft are the four passenger seats – lbs more in its eCargo version.
two forward-facing, two rear-facing – all made from lightweight
recycled plastic. The revised vehicle design uses a conventional German aircraft manufacturer Volocopter’s
wing and tail instead of the previous canard configuration. The electric aircraft family includes VoloCity,
eight rotors are fixed around the wing, providing vertical take-off VoloDrone, and VoloRegion. The autonomous
and landing capability as well as safety and reliability in a lift-plus- VoloCity eVTOL has 2 seats and 18 rotors.
cruise design. In December, Eve announced that Brazil’s National Designed to meet the exacting requirements
Development Bank (“BNDES”) would support its eVTOL develop- set by the European Aviation Safety Agency
ment efforts with two credit lines, totaling US$92.5 million. (EASA), VoloCity has received permits to
fly in crewed or uncrewed configurations
Eve will start with manned flights, but unmanned flights are cen- during test flights in cities such as Hamburg,
tral to its plans. In May last year, Embraer conducted a series Dubai, Helsinki, and Singapore. VoloRegion,
of experimental flights in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to evaluate new announced in 2021, runs on two propul-
autonomous system technologies that will enable safe auton- sion fans and six electric motors and rotors.
omous operation in complex urban environments. The aircraft Designed to accommodate up to four pas-
OEM worked with Eve and other project partners- Daedalean, Iris sengers, the aircraft will have a range of 100
Automation, and Near Earth Autonomy on the project. km, a maximum airspeed of 250 km/h and a
“All information and data raised in this project, as well as the cruise speed of 180 km/h.
technical solutions under development, will set the path for fully In November last year, Volocopter successfully
autonomous flight of eVTOLs in the future,” said Andre Stein, completed a two-week test flight campaign
co-CEO of Eve. “…These are solid steps for safely introducing for the VoloDrone, which is designed to carry
future autonomous operations and accelerating the affordability a payload of up to 200 kg up to 40 km. The
and growth of the UAM market.” campaign included a public display of decon-
fliction test flight scenarios involving the
multirotor heavy-lift cargo carrier. The test,
which was part of the CORUS-XUAM project’s
Very Large Demonstration (VLD) endeavor,
focused on harmonizing the digital Air Traffic
Management (ATM) and Unmanned Traffic
Management (UTM) interfaces to allow new
airspace users to safely be introduced into
the existing airspace.

Singapore Gets Ready
Volocopter, the first-ever eVTOL company to
conduct a crewed air taxi flight in a city, is also
likely to be the first among the companies to
start commercial operations. The company
plans to launch operations in Singapore and
France in 2024.

ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 | 11