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Germany E-volo continues development of all electric vertical takeoff and landing

Friday, January 4, 2013 21:41

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From NextBigFuture.com

Nextbigfuture covered what was four quadcopters that combined for the first manned flight at the end of 2011.

This has now evolved into an all electric 18 propped vertical takeoff and landing system. It is the first purely electrically powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft – the Volocopter.

The German Ministry of Transportation has commissioned a two- to three-year trial program to create a new category of ultralight aviation to cover the two-seat VC200 rotorcraft now in development. In Europe, ultralights are aircraft weighing less than 450kg and carrying up to two people.

In place of a conventional helicopter rotor, E-volo's Volocopter has a fixed branch-like structure on which is mounted an array of battery-powered, electrically driven, individually controlled, multiply redundant mini-rotors.

Under the trial program, the German Ultralight Aircraft Association, Sport Aircraft Association and Federal Aviation Office will work with E-volo to create a manufacturing specification, legal regulations and training requirements for the new “Volocopter” ultralight rotorcraft category.

E-volo has received a €2 million subsidy from Germany's Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology to help build the two-seat VC200, designed to fly at speeds exceeding 50kt and altitudes up to 6,500ft with a flight time of more than an hour.