Volocopter Completes Crewed eVTOL Test Flight Out of Rome Vertiport
upstart writes:
Volocopter completes crewed eVTOL test flight out of Rome vertiport:
German electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) startup Volocopter conducted its first crewed public test flight in Italy Thursday morning. The flight launched from a vertiport built at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, Italy's first advanced air mobility (AAM) testing vertiport, during a two-day event meant to demonstrate what a service between the airport and the city of Rome would look like.
The Aeroporti di Roma is working toward launching commercial operations between the airport and Rome by 2024, so the reveal of the vertiport as a functional station for eVTOL takeoff and landing is a milestone in Italy's AAM industry.
The five-minute test flight was less about taking on passengers (which it didn't) and more about showing off the two-seater VoloCity air taxi to relevant stakeholders.
[...] Italy's aim for its first vertiport is to set an example for designing and building international vertiports. During the vertiport demo, Volocopter also displayed its branded VoloIQ digital platform, which the startup says supports everything from booking to managing flight operations, and will help support the scaling up of AAM in cities around the world.
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