Airbus won enviro-bragging rights at last week’s GreenTec award ceremony, claiming Europe’s “most important environment and business award” for its work on fuel cells in commercial aircraft.
But all eyes were also focused on the latest model from Volocopter, which was suspended from the ceiling during the presentation. Volocopter’s recently completed two-seat prototype, the VC200, captured the attention. Managing director Stephan Wolf said the electric-powered multicopter is scheduled to fly manned flights by the year’s end. With an endurance of up to 20 minutes on its battery power, the VC200 uses 18 electric motors driving fixed pitch rotors on six booms (each with three rotors). Control is achieved by changing rotor speed on appropriate motors, rather than changing pitch as on a conventional helicopter. A computerized fly-by-wire system responds to the pilot’s movement of a joystick controller.
