Collapsed Volocopter Absorbed By Diamond Aircraft Germany lost two of its eVTOL companies recently after they essentially went out of business - Lilium and Volocopter-. However, recent news suggests that Diamond Aircraft has absorbed Volocopter. More specifically Diamond Aircraft's Chinese owners Wanfeng Aircraft Division of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group have absorbed Volocopter. This will now revive Volocopter's efforts to bring the VoloCity model to market in 2025.
Although Volocopter has been absorbed into the Austrian Diamond Aircraft's fold it will continue to operate from its headquarters in Bruchsal, Germany. The company’s reorganization of Volocopter will broaden its aircraft and business portfolio into the field of electric urban air transportation, while enabling Volocopter to reduce costs, retain a highly motivated and skilled workforce, and focus on achieving its certification milestones by 2025. The VoloCity, along with its next-generation variants, will continue to evolve successfully over the long term, contributing significantly to the sustainable growth of the aviation industry.
"The future of aviation is shaped by visionaries. Diamond’s stellar portfolio, its manufacturing expertise, and the addition of Volocopter create a formidable lineup of general aviation flying vehicles. Together, we are laying the foundation to advance sustainable air mobility and strengthen Europe as an innovation hub in aviation", Chairman Diamond Aircraft Group, Bin Chen.
This will not be Diamond Aircraft's first introduction to electric craft as it is developing an electric variant of its own DA40 that is run by the Safran EngineUs motor. That aircraft is currently known as the eDA40. Moving forward, just under 200 Volocopter employees will be retained under the new ownership. Diamond and Wanfeng have suggested that they will invest several hundreds of millions of dollars in Volocopter. This is certainly good news for a company that went over the edge and has a new lease on life...for now. For more information: Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH N. A. Otto-Strasse 5 2700 Wiener Neustadt www.diamondaircraft.com ***
