AirVenture 2021 Volocopter Flies at Oshkosh

Volocopter has been tentatively demonstrating its multi-rotor urban air mobility aircraft for a couple of years, but this year, it showed up and flew at Oshkosh for the first time. AVweb talked to Florian Reuter about where Volocopter development stands.

[andy.puempel]

Volocopter has a very high level of credibility. Very professional execution of this new vehicle and very realistic planning. Impressive.

[abvmoose]

They say the most frequent incidents with rotorcrafts is the back rotor tail running into something which is something you bypass with this design. Even in situations where a careless pilot woud nudge the main rotor into something, which would be catastrophic, is fine with this design and thats something I really like.

[lodgecav]

I see this as an early design iteration of how to get electric flight commercial, but will be probably short lived. I think a decade from now we will see more 'natural looking' designs which will be easier on the eye and much more efficient, as they generally go hand in hand. Fantastic to see progress of any kind, well done Volocopter.

[robertbooth]

This aircraft is really cool, in so many ways; but I fear the easier (and safer) to fly aircraft become, the more we lose our comparably peaceful empty skies in favor of an LA traffic nightmare equivalent aloft.

[Trevor_Austin]

I’d love these to be used as personal transport. If they come into service I’ll wait at the bottom of skyscrapers to watch these things clatter down these buildings complete with a screaming lawyer or merchant banker inside. I can’t wait.

[dtoften]

It would appear that a wing, such as what Lilium EVTOL has, would allow less energy to fly during the cruise phase. I think this approach has more pluses than the vertical thrust flying that Volocopter is doing. Higher cruise speed, longer range, emergency landing with no power survivability, and possibly less NVH.

[SoundzAlive]

Absolutely perfect as a Superyacht tender to shore and back. Now all I have to do is start saving for my Superyacht. André

[bfamily]

It all sounded reasonably viable until he mentioned the pilotless version. I think it will be awhile before most people will feel comfortable in a driverless car - let alone a pilotless plane. My other concern is that there are no control surfaces that could be utilized for an emergency glide to earth if (God forbid) there was a power feed issue to one or all the motors.

[Traderjoe]

It’s a beautiful looking aircraft. I hope they can make it to go 100 miles. But I do worry about collisions between things like this and drones and existing aircraft and of course, birds

[YeRobertPayne]

Another manned drone with 20 or so miles range.

[marsstarlink]

This is a solid first step. Would like to know the auto-rotation numbers, will it plumet like a rock? The body structure has a lot of wing surface area maybe it can glide enough for a semi-rough landing. What's keeping this project alive is the low costs to operate. Electricity and maintenance is cheap, but so is the lackluster 22nm mission. The batteries will get better, and so the multi-rotor design in time.

[thatguy]

All the fun of a helicopter without the ability to autorotate when the engine quits.

[DQ-suqf]

Wonder if the 4680 will be adopted & potential longer range ect..

[Nicholas-f]

How soon can we get these hovering over our homes?

[RicVipermoto]

Any autorotation avail[not] Or do we fall out the sky post power failure

[superseries]

Love to see it demonstrate its autorotation capabilities. 🚁

[comfortablynumb]

I bet cops would love this. They could bring it to a situation and launch for an aerial view, or do regular patrolling with it instead of a chopper. But the idea of a bunch of these in the air together is a little spooky.

[FSEAirboss]

I sure hope there is a battery locking mechanism when the cover is down. That bump to release the packs scared me, and I am sure anyone that has flow in any turbulence. Inertia is a beast.

[bartofilms]

Since there is no central motor, a BRS should be possible. I would fly on it with BRS and some basic minimum AGL in transit requirements.

[shivchandjaysaval]

hallo daer sir my name is shivchand jaysaval frome india which batteri used this please can you reply