German eVTOL developer Volocopter says it’s determined to demonstrate the value of urban air mobility to the world at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris but it has some high regulatory hurdles to clear first. “The Olympics are our North Star,” CEO Dirk Hoke told Reuters at the Paris Air Show this week. No eVTOLs have been certified yet, although some are well into the process, like Volocopter. The next phase for its multicopter is “intense weather testing” along with preparing the thousands of pages of documents that support the results of the flight test program. “It’s not a walk in the park to be the first to certify,” Hoke said.
Using the Olympics as the launch platform for the new technology could accelerate urban air mobility’s acceptance as a viable transportation option. He said the fledgling industry has been plagued with missed deadlines and unfulfilled promises, and Hoke said his company’s successful launch next year would improve that reputation. “You need to re-instill credibility and reputation,” Hoke said. It will take a lot of money to meet the deadline and that’s a new challenge for the sector as investment tightens up. “In combination with a difficult market, less liquidity in the market is a problem for the whole industry,” he told Reuters.
On Wednesday the company announced it will fly five routes during the Olympics, three of them “connection routes” and two of them “tourist round trip” routes. The flights will launch from local airports and heliports.
The danger of a very public failure posed by actually undertaking a demonstration like this makes it a real gamble. Especially considering there was never much lost credibility and reputation to be “re-instilled” in the first place. Points for guts, that’s for sure.
“German eVTOL developer Volocopter says it’s determined to demonstrate the value of urban air mobility to the world at the 2024 Summer Olympics”
Not a good look for Germany. It reminds me of the Germans showing off their helicopter at the Berlin Olympics of 1936.
This will be interesting to watch. Here is to the innovators and risk-takers out there.