GERMAN eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) manufacturer Volocopter performed a flight of its 2X model during the Paris Air Forum last week, planning to have an operating air taxi service in Paris in time for the 2024 Olympic Games.

The 18-rotor Volocopter 2X prototype, which was remotely operated, flew a 500-meter route and reached a speed of 30 km/h and an altitude of 30 meters. The three-minute flight was the first test in a market-development campaign with France’s Civil Aviation Authority. The flight was performed without passengers.

The program will move to the Pontoise-Cormeilles-en-Vexin airfield outside of Paris, where RE.Invent, a consortium of urban-air-mobility (UAM) companies, has built a UAM “sandbox” that includes a functioning vertiport to allow the craft to take off and land.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recently identified Paris as the most promising European city for airport shuttle and air taxi functions of eVTOL aircraft. Several associations have been working on a UAM system in Paris. The main organizers, Choose Paris Region, Groupe ADP and RATP Group, have selected 30 companies to take part in the RE.Invent Air Mobility initiative that puts Paris as the leader in this space.

Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter estimates that the UAM market could surpass US$10 trillion. He says his company could be serving a market by 2035 that “has around US$300 billion in opportunity.”

Volocopter also had a full-scale model of its VoloCity production multicopter on display at the air show. The two-seat VoloCity will be taking “center stage” at the 2024 Olympics, said Reuter. The company is currently working with EASA for certification for the air taxi.

“Volocopter is a vivid example of what the futures of aviation could look like, both carbon-free and innovative,” said Edward Arkwright, deputy CEO of Groupe ADP, in a statement.

Arkwright said the flight demonstrations in Paris during the 2024 Olympic Games will lay the foundation of a “strong UAM industrial ecosystem” in France.(SD-Agencies)