Advanced air mobility ground infrastructure venture Skyportz has reached a trio of agreements calling for the development of more than 1,000 new vertipads for eVTOL aircraft operations. The Australian company announced on August 9 that it signed deals with an undisclosed aircraft manufacturer and a couple of infrastructure investors.
Skyportz has not said where the new facilities will be established. It said these will be based on the patented vertiport design that it announced at the Farnborough Air Show in July.
According to the Melbourne-based company, its vertipad design addresses multiple safety and operational issues associated with eVTOL operations. These include downwash from rotors, battery fires, power storage, debris capture, and insurance risks, as well as noise and other environmental concerns.
“The patented design has not been released publicly as we are still tweaking our prototype,” said the company’s founder and CEO, Clem Newton-Brown. “However, we have been happy to share the design with industry colleagues under non-disclosure agreements and the response has been incredible. You can actually see the light bulbs going on as people realize we have cracked the nut of mass production of a vertipad product that is a vast improvement on a circle painted on a slab of concrete.”
Skyportz is presenting its vertipad concept as an alternative to larger and more elaborate vertiports that could be a better fit for smaller sites. However, it is still offering full vertiport terminal designs through its partnership with Contreras Earl Architecture.
“The mass vertiport infrastructure is the missing piece of the puzzle for this industry,” said Newton-Brown. “Without new vertiport landing sites in places people want to go, the aircraft will never fulfill their potential. The elephant in the room is that no one wants to pay millions of dollars for each vertiport. We got the message and responded with this patent.”
The company said it is in talks with investors seeking to license and produce the vertipad concept in different parts of the world.