Volatus Infrastructure & Energy (VI&E) Solutions and ResilienX have joined forces to build the first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) project in the Americas at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Volatus, known for building vertiports and charging stations for all electric mobility including eVTOLs, announced its partnership with ResilienX, who specializes in the development of traffic management software for unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The collaboration includes the integration of ResilienX’s FRAIHMWORK software as a real-time aviation safety management system for the inaugural vertiport currently underway.
In a joint press release on Dec. 11, ResilienX expressed its vision for the sophisticated system that includes “battery charging, surveillance, comms, weather sensors, networking equipment, and all of the digital infrastructure needed to manage and direct operations and personnel.”
Volatus says its vertiport facility at Wittman Regional Airport, home to the largest airshow in the United States, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA’s) AirVenture, will include a terminal with a landing pad and eVTOL charging station. At a cost of $500,000 Volatus CEO Grant Fisk told FutureFlight the vertiport is “by a very large margin the most affordable, cost-conscious eVTOL infrastructure option out there.”
If you build it, they will come? Maybe?
1,800ft, 90kts and an “eVTOL Camping” sign required.
How about a coned off area in a parking lot and a diesel generator?
Very funny! Like those prolific EV rescue vehicles, a diesel-powered pickup towing a diesel-powered generator.
I suspect it will look like those fancy charging stations at a Buckees – expensive, and unused.
Add a big bullseye where the smoking holes will be when these fossil-fueled Rube Goldbergs auger in. Design it to be easy to convert into something useful when the last dollar from eVTOL investors (suckers) dries up.
Kind of like having a railroad with just one station. I assume the to-be-established vertiport is both departure and destination point. So, it’s going to be flying around the patch? I’m sure some of the typical AirVenture attendees could be considered Early Adopters and will be curious. But I’m not sure of the logic of trying to sell the opposite of DIY to a huge crowd of aviation DIY’ers. It will be interesting to see what “solutions” come up for managing traffic in the vicinity of this vertiport during the fly-in when the NORDO vintage folks arrive and during the early morning and post-airshow ultralight activity. And personally I wouldn’t be confident flying over to Pipe or Stockbridge for a picnic. Lake Winnebago may not be deep but it’s wide enough to be a concern.
As long as I can land my helo at these vertiports, I’m all for it.
Who decided that our entire transportation network had to be built around the reliance on an element, Lithium, that there is so little of? I would guess the coming Lithium war will be well mannered and inclusive.
I hate EV’s as much as the net guy but in fairness lithium is not rare. For a rare battery ingredient look into the slave mines for cobalt extraction.
Lithium may actually be a boon for the US, California in particular with exploitation of the vast deposits in the Salton Sea.
next, not net…