Talk:Volocopter Technologies

Founding and incorporation

In 2010, software developer Stephan Wolf came up with the idea of scaling up a toy drone so that it could lift a person. Physicist Thomas Senkel and childhood friend Alexander Zosel joined the project in 2011.^[5][6][7]

Supported by Stephan Wolf's existing company in Karlsruhe, the group built and flew their first technology demonstrator vehicle called Volocopter VC1 in 2011. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the VC1 thus completed the first ever crewed flight of an electric multicopter.^[8][9] The company was renamed e-volo GmbH in 2012.^[10]

In the course of a financing round in July 2017 led by Daimler AG, the company’s name was changed to Volocopter GmbH.^[11][12]

Management and governance

The founders Stephan Wolf and Alexander Zosel hired industrial engineer and venture manager Florian Reuter to serve as the company’s CEO in 2015.^[4] Further members of management of Volocopter GmbH are CFO René Griemens, CTO Arnaud Coville, and CCO Christian Bauer.^[13][14][2]

The company has an Advisory board comprised of shareholder delegates and elected, independent advisors, among which are DB Schenker CEO Jochen Thewes and ex-Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche.^[15][16] Stefan Klocke, who joined the company as an angel investor in 2015, is Chairman of the Advisory Board.^[17]

Financing

The startup has been raising venture capital since 2011 by fundraising on Seedmatch^[18][19] and via several traditional funding rounds. Investors include Ascending Technologies (now Intel), Daimler,^[20][21][22] DB Schenker,^[15][23] and Geely.^[24][25]

In the financing round in March 2021, funds managed by BlackRock, Continental, and Atlantia, among others, invested a total of €200M in the company.^[26]

Technical concept and development

The basic concept used by Volocopter for its rotorcraft is to produce lift only with propellers driven by electric direct-drive motors, thus using a minimal setup of mechanical components. Safety is achieved primarily by multiple redundancy of all viable components.^[27][28] In the VoloConnect model, the company installed wings and pushers in addition to the lift propellers for the first time.^[29]

The first proof of concept, the single-seater technology demonstrator VC1, performed a fully electrically powered flight in 2011. It had 16 electric motors and propellers mounted on four metal rotor arms^[9] with the pilot seat on top of them in the centre. A yoga ball served as the landing gear. The flight demonstrated the overall feasibility of lifting a person with an all-electric multirotor aircraft design.^[30][31]

An updated version of the VC1 technology demonstrator was built in 2012 but has not been used.^[32]

In 2012, the company started building the two-seat VC200 together with a group of research and industry partners.^[31] The prototype was an aircraft made completely of a carbon fiber structure for both its cockpit fuselage as well as its six rotor arms in a hexagonal configuration. Each arm hosts three electric motors and propellers, making up a total of 18 electric propulsion units.^[33]

The VC200 had its first remotely piloted flight in November 2013^[34] and its first crewed flight on 30 March 2016.^[35] Earlier that same year, the VC200 was granted the permit to fly as a German ultralight aircraft.^[36] As a successor to the VC200, the company started to develop the Volocopter 2X as their prospective production model.^[37] It was similar in shape, with a few modifications, and also had two seats. The 2X model was first built in 2017 and publicly presented at the AERO Friedrichshafen trade fair in April 2017.^[38] The 2X entered pre-series production in April 2018, being built under contract by DG Flugzeugbau.^[39] Volocopter showcased its 2X eVTOL aircraft in several international public flight demonstrations in 2019.^[40][41][42] At that point Volocopter had performed more than 1,000 test flights overall.^[43][44]

Public events and flight demonstrations

• On 21 October 2011, co-founder Thomas Senkel performed the first crewed flight with the VC1 technology demonstrator.^[30][31]
• The VC200 prototype was first presented at the GreenTec Awards in Berlin on 30 August 2013.^[45][46]
• The first flight of the VC200 was performed on 17 November 2013 indoors in an exhibition hall.^[34][47][48]
• The company presented the VC200 to a broader public at the AERO Friedrichshafen trade fair for general aviation in April 2014.^[49]
• Founder Alexander Zosel first flew the VC200 on 30 March 2016. It was the first crewed flight of an electric multicopter with a permit to fly granted by an aviation authority.^[50][51][52]
• Together with the local Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Volocopter demonstrated an autonomous flight with the VC200 in Dubai on 25 September 2017.^[53][54][55] At the same time, Volocopter showcased its 2X model at the Daimler booth of the IAA 2017 automobile trade show in Frankfurt.^[56]
• Intel CEO Brian Krzanich together with Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter presented a remotely piloted flight of the VC200 live on stage in a theater during Krzanich’s keynote speech at the 2018 CES trade show in Las Vegas^[57][58][59] after presenting a video of Krzanich flying the VC200.
• The Volocopter 2X partook in regular air traffic at Helsinki Airport on 30 August 2019 as part of the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking) research program.^[60]
• On 14 September 2019, the Volocopter 2X performed its first European urban flight in Stuttgart, Germany.^[61]
• On 21 October 2019, Volocopter unveiled the first prototype of their VoloPort vertiport at Marina Bay, Singapore.^[62][63] On 22 October 2019, the Volocopter 2X flew with a pilot over the Marina Bay harbour.^[64][65]
• One year later, in September 2020, Volocopter unveiled their VoloCity aircraft in Paris at Pontoise airport.^[66][67] The company completed its first test flights at Le Bourget in Paris in June 2021.^[68]

VoloCity

Volocopter presented the design for its VoloCity model in August 2019. The VoloCity is the aircraft Volocopter designed to offer commercial services. The two-seater has the same overall hexagonal structure of the rotor area with 18 electric motors and rotors like its predecessor, the 2X.^[76][77]

The aircraft is designed to meet the safety standards of the EASA according to the SC-VTOL.^[78] All flight-critical systems have multiple redundancies for maximum safety.^[79]

The VoloCity has a range of 35 km and reaches a speed of up to 110 km/h.^[80][79]

In a first stage, the VoloCity will have a pilot on board but is designed to fly completely autonomously as soon as the regulatory rules for autonomous flight are in place by aviation authorities.^[81]

Aside from passenger flight, Volocopter also sees a use for the VoloCity in emergency air rescue services.^[82][83] An initial study conducted with ADAC Luftrettung, who operates the largest fleet of ambulance helicopters in Germany,^[84] concluded that the use of multicopters like the VoloCity would be beneficial and could improve emergency care.^[85]

Volocopter started pre-sales for VoloCity flight reservations in September 2020.^[86][87]

VoloDrone

Adopting the same electric propulsion concept and 18-rotor design as the Volocopter passenger aircraft, Volocopter’s VoloDrones are designated for cargo transport. The heavy-duty drones are built to lift payloads of up to 200 kg and have a range of up to 40 km.^[88]

Volocopter first presented its VoloDrone in November 2019.^[89][90] Logistics company DB Schenker, a shareholder in Volocopter, plans to use the VoloDrone to deliver parcels and heavier items.^[91][92]

Volocopter sees further areas of application for the VoloDrone, such as construction work or agriculture.^[89][93]

VoloConnect

Volocopter first presented the design for the VoloConnect in May 2021.^[94] The VoloConnect does not use a pure multirotor system, but rather a hybrid lift and push design with fully electric propulsion. The VoloConnect is an eVTOL aircraft with a longer travel distance of up to 100 km and a top speed of 250 km/h that can accommodate four people. The aircraft is designed to meet EASA's SC-VTOL safety standards.^[29][95] Volocopter has been working on the VoloConnect since 2019. So far, there have been testing flights with smaller models. Like all of the company’s air taxis, the VoloConnect will be linked to the in-house VoloIQ platform.^[96]

Proposed text above

Thanks for your "paid edit" declaration and text proposal above, but it contains a lot of extraneous and promotional details and use of language that would require a complete re-write to incorporate. Let's see if any other editors are are willing to take on the work of sifting through it and distilling whatever could be used from it. - Ahunt (talk) 12:55, 14 April 2021 (UTC)

@Ahunt: Thanks for your feedback. However, the statements are quite general. Can you be more specific about which phrases and terms you think are promotional or which facts should not be presented because they would not be encyclopedic? Thank you in advance for your comments. Atomiccocktail (talk) 10:51, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

I'll give just one, single representative example, because the whole thing needs completely reworking to be usable, The company has announced to provide passenger air taxi and air cargo services all over the world in collaboration with both local and global partners. It is a meaningless WP:PEACOCK marketing statement that could apply to any aircraft builder or air operator, plus the English grammar is very poor. I am not going to list more examples, the whole text has the same issues and needs a complete rewrite. - Ahunt (talk) 15:12, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

While a slight improvement the new draft is still rife with poor English grammar and marketing language. Just one example that combines poor grammar with meaningless, fluffy marketing speak: Volocopter develops several aircraft to offer different services. Note that the poor grammar/meaningless fluff quoted above: The company has announced to provide passenger air taxi and air cargo services all over the world in collaboration with both local and global partners is still in this draft, too. The whole draft still reads like what the company marketing department would write on their own website and not like an encyclopedia article. As before, it would still need a complete rewrite to be acceptable. I think the company needs to accept that Wikipedia is not their marketing website, not waste any more time here and just move on. - Ahunt (talk) 12:22, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

No problem. I have removed the criticized sentences. (The sentence "Volocopter develops several aircraft to offer different services" had nothing to do with marketing, it only introduced the subsections.) There may be people who confuse Wikipedia with corporate websites. I do not. Atomiccocktail (talk) 13:34, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

Those are just two minor examples - the whole thing needs a complete scratch rewrite. - Ahunt (talk) 13:45, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

You've already said that several times. Your opinion, not mine. Atomiccocktail (talk) 14:09, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: The tone of this request is way too promotional. Quetstar (talk) 22:21, 6 August 2021 (UTC)