Lyte Aviation has introduced a 19-seat version of its LA-44 hydrogen-electric VTOL aircraft aimed at business and private aviation users. On Thursday, South Korean charter flight start-up Ghenus Air became the prospective launch customer as part of a preorder agreement for 10 aircraft, including three of the new LA-44 X Prime model, four of the 40-seat LA-44 SkyBus, and three of the LA-44C SkyTruck.
According to Lyte Aviation, its LA-44 X Prime aircraft will have the same 620-mile range as the other variants. Founder and CEO Freshta Farzam told AIN that she is in talks with aircraft completion specialists and aims to unveil cabin interior designs in the next few weeks. She indicated that the customer base might include families in the Middle East requiring door-to-door transportation, or corporations seeking convenient shuttle flights for employees.
Seoul-based Ghenus Air hopes to take delivery from Lyte Aviation around five or six years from now. The operator, which has been in business for just over a year, wants to branch out into air taxi operations from its current VIP car service business model in locations including the Korean capital and Los Angeles. It also has a partnership agreement with Korean regional airline Jeju Air and relationships with logistics groups.
In April 2023, Ghenus Air signed a letter of intent to buy 20 of the five-seat hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft being developed by South Korean start-up Plana. In October, the company signed a similar agreement with California-based Traverse Aero covering a potential purchase for up to 20 of its Orca hybrid-electric cargo drones, which are expected to have a payload of 550 pounds and a range of up to 600 miles.
The Ghenus Air website also shows Odys Aviation as a partner. The U.S. manufacturer confirmed it holds provisional orders for 50 of its nine-passenger Alta hybrid-electric aircraft and options for another 50.
According to Ghenus Air CEO Joseph Kim, his company intends to provide flights to smaller regional airports that do not currently have commercial air service. “In the U.S., 90 percent of people live within a 30-minute drive of a regional airport, compared with 60 percent for a commercial airport,” he stated. “This existing capacity of underutilized airports could support a growing regional air mobility market with less investment and ramp-up time than other new modes of transport such as urban air mobility.”
Lyte Aviation’s agreement with Ghenus Air brings its provisional order book for the LA-44 aircraft to 23 units. In November 2023, India’s VMan Aviation Services agreed to buy 10 LA-44 SkyBus aircraft, and in 2022 the manufacturer received a commitment for three more aircraft from an undisclosed customer. With a list price of €40 million ($44 million), these provisional sales agreements have a combined value of around €920 million.
The Germany-based company is completing design work for the LA-44 family of aircraft with the target of having a full-scale prototype ready for flight testing within 24 months. According to Farzam, her team is in discussions with prospective operators in 19 cities across four continents and is targeting preorders for a further 2,000 aircraft that could be signed after the prototype is built.
Initially, four turboprop engines fitted in pairs to each of the wings will power the tandem tilt wing aircraft. On each wingtip, a hydrogen fuel cell electric motor will provide additional power. Lyte’s ultimate objective is to rework the aircraft with all-hydrogen propulsion but first, it wants to lay the groundwork for a VTOL model that it believes will transform regional aviation through its ability to bypass existing airports.