Private aviation platform KinectAir is offering fractional shares in VoltAero’s Cassio hybrid-electric aircraft. In a joint announcement on July 22, the companies said that customers can now reserve share positions in the four-seat Cassio 330 model, for which deliveries are due to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023.
U.S.-based KinectAir said it will launch its Pioneer fractional ownership program at next week’s EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It has not yet provided full details about terms and conditions or pricing but did say that customers can also place reservations for complete aircraft. The company did indicate that the Pioneer program would allow owners to earn revenue to offset costs by permitting other people to fly in the aircraft in an arrangement it compared to Airbnb.
According to KinectAir, the Cassio 330s will be positioned at various U.S. airports based on user demand. It did not say who will operate the aircraft, but it has previously announced plans to secure an air operator certificate.
The Cassio aircraft are expected to have a range of up to 800 miles and fly at speeds of up to 230 mph. VoltAero intends to certify the aircraft under Part 23 rules and says they will require only 1,800 feet of runway to take off and land.
“The Jetsons future of rooftop-to-rooftop travel we see in very promising [eVTOL aircraft] projects like Joby and Beta is just a long way off,” said KinectAir CEO Jonathan Evans. “The Cassio brings an efficient and elegant clean-sheet design for an aircraft that can take off and land on the smaller, local airfields we are already operating from, and we expect to bring it into the fleet as early as 2024.” In fact, leading eVTOL aircraft developers including Joby and Beta also say they will have products certified and in commercial service by 2024.
In July 2020, KinectAir announced plans to launch a portfolio of on-demand flights, per-seat charter, and fractional aircraft ownership, saying that it would include hybrid-electric fixed-wing and eVTOL aircraft in its fleet. Plans called for the launch of its Together charter program by the end of the second quarter of 2021 with a fleet of leased aircraft.
Previously, KinectAir indicated that each aircraft will operate around 750 hours per year and with five owners per airframe. It aims to have a minimum of eight aircraft available in each region where it operates, with plans to start in Washington state, the San Francisco Bay area, and the UK.
VoltAero says that it intends to produce 150 aircraft per year in its new factory at Rochefort Airport in southwest France. It also holds provisional orders for 15 Cassio aircraft from Airways Aviation, which is a pilot-training company with ambitions to start passenger service in the south of France.
In addition to the Cassio 330, VoltAero is developing larger six- and 10-seat versions of the fixed-wing aircraft called the Cassio 480 and 600 models. The numbers in each model name refer to their power rating in kilowatts.
The production versions of the Cassio will be powered by three of Safran’s 60-kW Engineus 45 electric motors and a 370-hp internal combustion engine and a 370-hp internal combustion engine, collectively driving a five-bladed pusher propeller. The Cassio 1 demonstrator aircraft has a pair of forward-mounted propellers, each driven by an Engineus 45 motor.
