German eVTOL developer Volocopter is gearing up to go into full production mode.
A ceremony attended by several senior national and regional officials on March 5, 2023, marked the opening of the company’s main production facility in Bruchsal, in southwestern Germany.
The Bruchsal facility includes a hangar, which will host the final assembly line for Volocopter aircraft, as well as a test airfield.
The inauguration of the Bruchsal center is the culmination of 18 months of work to get the site ready.
In 2021, Volocopter secured Production Organisation Approval (POA) from European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) with the regulator validating the developer’s whole production process, from the manufacturing of carbon fiber parts and the electric propulsion unit, all the way to flight tests.
Type certification from EASA is expected for 2024, as are the first commercial services.
The German manufacturer is also pursuing certification in Japan, a country which may be one of the first places to see the developer’s VoloCity eVTOL flying regular services at scale as part of the World Expo 2025 in Osaka.
The Bruchsal factory will have the capacity to produce 50 VoloCity aircraft per year.