Personal eVTOL aircraft developer Air this week unveiled plans for a new uncrewed version of its vehicle to be used for cargo deliveries and other logistics roles. Announcing the new model on June 18, the company said it has already taken orders for the Air One Cargo and has delivered the first example to a customer based in an undisclosed country where it can be operated on a self-regulated basis under an experimental license prior to type certification.
The all-electric Air One Cargo can carry a payload of 550 pounds, which is more than the 440-pound payload previously published for the piloted, passenger-carrying aircraft. According to Air, the single-charge range of around 95 nm will be similar to that of the original model, as will the speed at between 87 and 135 knots.
Air said it is set to deliver more examples of the new Cargo vehicle this year and into the first half of 2025. Much of the early interest in this version has been from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Having previously indicated that the passenger aircraft would complete FAA type certification by the end of 2024, the company is not currently projecting a date for that two-seat version to enter service with private owners.
In February, Air announced a partnership with Japan’s Nidec Motor Corporation to develop a new electric motor for the Air One aircraft. This will replace an earlier powertrain that Air has used for an earlier technology demonstrator it started testing in late 2022.
Air was founded in Israel and has had a U.S. operating base in Fort Worth, Texas, for some time. The company said it generated revenues of over $1 million in 2023, mainly from early orders for the Air One Cargo vehicle. Further purchase orders have boosted Air’s revenue projections to unspecified totals for 2024 and 2025. To date, Air holds 1,170 reservations for the Air One personal eVTOL aircraft.
According to the company, it is building flight test hours with the Air One prototype. In December, the U.S. Air Force’s Afwerx unit selected the vehicle for assessment as part of the Agility Prime research and development program to evaluate possible military applications for eVTOL aircraft.
“Venturing into this new market with the Air One Cargo is a testament to our unwavering commitment to the integration of eVTOLs into all spheres of daily life, for a variety of use cases,” said Air’s co-founder and CEO Rani Plaut. “We expanded our offerings in response to strong market demand, and the feedback we’ve already received affirms that Air One’s robust capabilities and simple, cost-effective design make it an extremely agile platform, uniquely able to scale across different uses.”