German urban air mobility (UAM) company Volocopter, has completed the first test flight with its 2X aircraft in Seoul, South Korea. It was the first ever crewed public test flight of a fully electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxi in South Korea. The five-minute crewed test flight took place at Gimpo International Airport, covered a distance of approximately 3 kilometres, reached a maximum altitude of 50 meters and maximum speeds of 45 km/h. The test flight was part of the MOLIT’s UAM demonstration event – ‘Open the Urban Sky’. Volocopter is scheduled to conduct a public test flight at Incheon airport on 16 November (weather permitting) during K-UAM Confex 2021. Seoul is the second city in Asia that Volocopter has conducted a test flight following the first successful public flight trial over Singapore’s Marina Bay area in 2019.
Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter said, “With MOLIT’s comprehensive K-UAM roadmap, South Korea is well positioned to achieve the goal of commercializing UAM by 2025. We are extremely honored to conduct the nation’s first crewed public eVTOL test flight today and prove yet again that the future of air taxis is here and now with Volocopter’s aircraft. As the pioneers of the UAM industry, we look forward to working closely with friends and partners from both the government agencies and private sectors to make UAM a reality in South Korea.”
Volocopter has been leading the pack in the UAM sector with a family of electrically powered aircraft that can transport passengers (the VoloCity and VoloConnect) and goods (the VoloDrone). It is the only eVTOL company that has obtained design and production organisation approvals (DOA and POA) from European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
For Editorial Inquiries Contact:
Editor Matt Driskill at matt.driskill@asianaviation.com
For Advertising Inquiries Contact:
Head of Sales Kay Rolland at kay.rolland@asianaviation.com
