XTI Aerospace cited steady progress on the development of its turbine-powered TriFan 600 vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft in a quarterly financial report released on Friday. However, the company still has not announced a targeted timeline for FAA type certification and service entry for the six-passenger TriFan 600, which has been in development since 2013. According to XTI, the TriFan 600 will combine the versatility of a helicopter with the speed and range of a business jet, cruising at 270 knots for up to 1,000 miles.
The Englewood, Colorado-based company closed the second quarter with $20 million in cash, nearly five times what it held six months earlier. This increase was primarily the result of a $16 million public offering the company completed in June and another $2.4 million it subsequently raised by exercising over-allotment options in July. Its operating expenses for the first half reached nearly $22 million, up from $8.2 million in the same period last year.
“During the second quarter, we made measurable strides toward our goal to bring the TriFan 600 to market as a game-changing aircraft for both commercial and defense applications,” said XTI chairman and CEO Scott Pomeroy. “Our engineering teams achieved foundational milestones, from finalizing the global finite element model (GFEM) for the latest configuration to selecting drivetrain supplier-partners, all while progressing critical FAA certification efforts.”
Completed in April, the GFEM is a detailed digital twin of the TriFan 600 that allows engineers to analyze the aircraft’s structural integrity and load distribution. Following the GFEM’s completion, XTI appointed three partners in May to design and manufacture the aircraft’s powertrain, which will use an as-yet-unspecified pair of turboshaft engines to power the aircraft’s three ducted fans.
“We also leveraged some of the most powerful computing resources in the world, including the U.S. Department of Energy’s Frontier supercomputer, to accelerate aerodynamic analysis and optimize our design ahead of wind tunnel testing,” Pomeroy added. “We opened a dedicated prototyping and innovation lab to fast-track subscale model testing and flight control development, and entered into a memorandum of understanding with VerdeGo Aero to explore hybrid-electric propulsion solutions for future variants.”
Kicking off the third quarter, XTI signed a memorandum of understanding with MagLev Aero on July 3 to evaluate the integration of MagLev’s HyperDrive magnetic propulsion technology into its hybrid-electric aircraft architecture.
The company also reported in July that it had met with the FAA to complete a series of reviews in support of type certification. In March, the company said the FAA had begun the G-1 issue paper process to establish the basis for type certification of the TriFan 600. It is preparing a subscale prototype nicknamed “Kestrel” but has not specified when it will be ready for flight testing. A 65% scale technology demonstrator achieved its first flights in 2019.
“We believe the combination of technical progress, a strengthened balance sheet, and a growing network of industry partners sets the stage for reopening TriFan 600 pre-sales and moving toward first flight and type certification,” Pomeroy said.
Since launching its pre-sales program in 2017, XTI has secured more than 700 conditional pre-orders for the TriFan 600 worth a total of around $7 billion. According to XTI’s quarterly financial report (Form 10-Q), the company has received approximately $1.4 million in deposits from those conditional pre-orders, which include a combination of non-binding aircraft purchase agreements, reservation deposit agreements, options, and letters of intent. Most recently, XTI announced an order from Mesa Air Group for up to 100 TriFan 600s in June 2024.