Saudi Arabia’s National Industrial Development Centre and Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources have pledged to back UK-based rotorcraft and eVTOL aircraft developer Arc Aerosystems with funding for development work and manufacturing facilities. At the Revolution Aero conference in London on Tuesday, Arc’s founder and CEO, Seyed Mohseni, pitched for bridge funding to keep the start-up functioning while the terms of the funding are finalized.
The basis for the partnership with the Saudi government is a newly founded joint venture called Life Shield, which will invest Rials 1.5 billion (about $400 million) to develop manufacturing capability and promote technology transfer in Saudi Arabia. The agreement signed on June 7 with Arc also covers joint involvement in low-volume manufacturing in the UK, as well as pilot training and potential partnerships with Cranfield University, where Arc is headquartered.
In recent months, Saudi Arabia has increasingly surfaced as a source of new finance and partnership for advanced air mobility companies as the country vies with its neighbor, the UAE, to be an early adopter of eVTOL air services. Joby, Archer, Eve, Volocopter, and Lilium have all established partnerships in the Gulf state.
Arc is developing a modern version of the 1960s-era Avian Pegasus gyroplane design for which it owns the type certificate. In tandem with this project, the company is working on a new nine-seat compound helicopter called the Linx P9. The hybrid-electric model will use jump takeoff and zero-roll landing capability, based on the previously-certified design that Arc acquired last year.
Arc is also working on a three-seat, all-electric rotorcraft called the Linx P3 and aims to bring this to market in 2026, which would be three years ahead of the P9 model. The company has already conducted flight trials with the C-600 uncrewed eVTOL aircraft that will have a payload of 100 kilograms (220 pounds).