Aura Aero Flies Former VoltAero Aircraft As Testbed

Aura Aero has made its first flight of X-Volt, a modified Cessna 337 Skymaster formerly owned by fellow French hybrid-electric aircraft startup VoltAero. In an announcement on September 16, Aura Aero said it is using the twin-engine model as a technology demonstrator for in-development its 19-seat ERA regional airliner.

Flight tracking data shows the aircraft, registered as F-WOLT, made the local sortie from VoltAero’s former headquarters at Rochefort in the west of France. Aura Aero reported it has now completed more than 350 hybrid-electric and all-electric flights with the X-Volt and the Integral E, its two-seat all-electric trainer. It is aiming for 2027 certification of the latter, while work continues to progress on its plans for Era. 

In its previous role as VoltAero’s flying testbed, the twin-boomed platform first flew in October 2020. Modifications included new propulsion system installed in a pusher configuration in the aft fuselage, along with a pair of wing-mounted Safran EngineUs electric motors. The setup had been intended to inform the powertrain for its Cassio family of aircraft, the first of which—the hybrid-electric Cassio 330—VoltAero had planned to start flight testing in the first half of 2026 before it ran out of funds.

Last year, when around $5.8 million in equity capital promised by France’s ACI Group was not forthcoming, VoltAero was plunged into financial peril and filed for insolvency in October 2025. In January 2026, Toulouse-based Aura Aero announced it had acquired VoltAero’s assets: including what it termed proven hybrid-electric technologies and “rare experience” in applicable architectures.

“This expertise, accumulated by VoltAero over several years of work, finds its most concrete expression in the… hybrid-electric flying demonstrator,” stated Aura Aero at the time. It added that the flight test aircraft had completed 270 flights and covered approximately 25,000 kilometers “under a variety of operating conditions,” therefore validating its relevance as a “direct catalyst” for Aura Aero’s electic and hybrid-electric developments.