Skip to main content

Volocopter offers tickets for first flights on its unique aircraft

If $250,000 for a seat on one of Virgin Galactic’s upcoming space tourism flights sounds a little on the pricey side, then how about a more modest $350 to become one of the first passengers on the extraordinary Volocopter?

A decade in development, the two-seat autonomous aircraft is the work of a German firm of the same name. When regulators give it the green light, Volocopter plans to use the vertical-takeoff-and-landing machine for air taxi services in urban areas.

As part of efforts to demonstrate that the project is moving in the right direction, Volocopter this week opened reservations to give members of the public the first chance of flying aboard its all-electric aircraft.

Volocopter

Each of the 1,000 “VoloFirst” tickets costs 300 euros (about $350) and can be reserved online with a 10% deposit, the company announced.

The flight will last around 15 minutes, with each passenger presented with a personalized certificate together with a video of their trip.

But before you put your name down, there are a couple of things you should know. First, ask yourself, are you the patient type? Volocopter’s “realistic timeline” for launching its VoloFirst flights means your trip will only happen after the aircraft’s commercial launch, which is expected “in the next two to three years.” Second, are you cool with not knowing where the flight will take place? No, Volocopter hasn’t said. We’ve reached out to the company for more details and will update this article when we hear back.

Touted as safe, simple, quiet, and versatile, the 18-rotor Volocopter is powered by nine lithium-ion batteries and has a maximum speed of 68 mph. Cruising at a speed of 43 mph gives the aircraft range of 22 miles (35 km), making it suitable for speedy trips across town.

The Volocopter has already undergone a string of test flights, including in Helsinki and Singapore. The company is competing with a slew of others around the world, all vying to become the first to launch a commercial flying taxi service. Thankfully, this rickety contraption is not in the race.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Check out this new flying taxi design from Volocopter
check out this new flying taxi design from volocopter  voloconnect air

Volocopter is celebrating 10 years in the electric aircraft business with the unveiling of a new design called VoloConnect.

The electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle will connect suburbs and cities, carrying as many as four passengers on journeys of up to 62 miles (100 km).

Read more
Watch first footage of Joby’s all-electric VTOL aircraft in flight
watch first footage of jobys all electric vtol aircraft joby aviation evtol

With some serious financial backing from the likes of Toyota and Intel, Joby Aviation appears to really be going places with its all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOL for short.

California-based Joby has been working on its flying machine for the last 10 years and wants to use it to launch an air taxi service.

Read more
All the weird and wonderful exoplanets CHEOPS investigated in its first year
Illustration of CHEOPS, ESA’s first exoplanet mission

Illustration of CHEOPS, ESA’s first exoplanet mission ESA / ATG medialab

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of CHEOPS, the European Space Agency's exoplanet investigation satellite. CHEOPS looks at known exoplanets discovered by other missions and probes them in more detail, uncovering new information about these distant worlds. Here's what it discovered in its first year:
Blurry stars
The first image taken by CHEOPS in February this year was not in fact of a planet, but a star -- HD 70843, located 150 light-years away. The telescope took a deliberately blurry picture of this particularly bright star to check its brightness was properly detected, and all boded well.

Read more