South Korean hybrid VTOL aircraft developer Plana is set to lease space at the new U.S. National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence (NAAMCE) in Springfield, Ohio, as part of the company’s expansion plans and efforts to accelerate its research and development work. The new facility, which has financial backing from the Pentagon, is due to officially open on September 18, with two other eVTOL manufacturers, Joby Aviation and Beta Technologies, already having agreed to use the site for simulation technology.
Plana is already flight testing a one-fifth-scale model of its eVTOL vehicle, which it expects to carry a pilot and four passengers on flights of over 500 kilometers (313 miles). The company, which already has offices in San Jose and Irvine, California, is aiming to achieve type certification in 2028.
NAAMCE is the result of $9.35 million in investments from the U.S. Department of Defense, private economic development corporation JobsOhio, and the city of Springfield. Its main purpose is to facilitate collaborations between the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, the Ohio Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center, local colleges and universities, and private industry to support the development of eVTOL vehicles and other AAM projects.
The Department of Defense's Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation approved a $6 million Defense Community Infrastructure Program grant to support the project in 2021. JobsOhio contributed a $2.9 million Ohio Site Inventory Program (OSIP) grant to support site preparation, utility extensions, an access drive, and a parking area for the facilities. The city of Springfield has committed to funding the balance of the project.
According to its backers, NAAMCE will provide participants with a collaborative environment in which companies can find support for aerospace research, design, validation, test and flight, training, and business advice related to aircraft development. The facility is located at Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport.
Program partners continue to work on regional use cases to support logistics and emergency medical services while the state of Ohio pushes to establish flight corridors connecting Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
“Participating in NAAMCE is of great significance in building a collaborative ecosystem with various AAM projects currently being developed in the U.S.,” said Plana founder and chief strategy officer Minyoung Ahn. “It is a great opportunity to showcase South Korea’s AAM technology to the world and jointly develop new technologies.”
Plana’s business model calls for it to act as an integrator of propulsion, avionics, and aircraft systems provided by existing aviation manufacturers. The project now operates under the working title of CopterPlane CP-01, but the company expects to confirm the name of the production aircraft when it builds and flies the first full-scale prototype in 2025. It has already started taking provisional orders for the vehicle from operators including Korean regional airline Hi-Air.
Plana Joins OneSky's Future of Flight Traffic Management Program
Meanwhile, Plana recently signed a business agreement with uncrewed air traffic management specialist OneSky to participate in the U.S. company's Future of Flight program. According to OneSky, this involves a cooperative ecosystem of industry leaders and innovators that allows partners to shorten the time it takes to achieve scalable operations. More than 20 companies are already part of the program, including ground infrastructure developers Skyports and Volatus, as well as Echodyne, a radar developer, and eVTOL aircraft manufacturer Supernal, which is the AAM division of Korean carmaker Hyundai.
The agreement with Plana which was signed last week at the company's headquarters at Incheon in Korea, calls for combining OneSky’s airspace situational awareness, flight planning and simulation, and unmanned aircraft system traffic management work with Plana’s expertise in developing and manufacturing hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft. Together, the companies plan to verify the operational concept of eVTOL aircraft, refine the technical roadmap by coordinating technical requirements, as well as exploring ways to meet new AAM industry regulations in various countries and developing business models.
