Rising up: Air eVTOL simplifies cargo deliveries

Israeli aircraft developer Air has been on an upward trajectory since it first debuted its prototype Air One at the 2022 Kentucky Derby. [caption id="attachment_57144634" align="alignright" width="362"] From left, Rani Plaut, CEO and Co-founder of Air, and Sean Borman, CEO of Aeroauto, at the Kentucky Derby. (Courtesy/Air)[/caption] The startup secured 54 preorders at the event and made the case for a simplified, reliable design for an electric takeoff vertical and landing (eVTOL) aircraft capable of transporting 550 pounds of cargo. Founded in 2017 with a team of engineers, physicists and innovators, Air most recently secured a spot in the U.S. Air Force ’s Agility Prime program to expand technology transition paths for electric aircraft manufacturers. In 2023, the company had enough preorders to generate more than $1 million in revenue, and expects to reach $7 million this year, Chief Executive and co-founder Rani Plaut told Air Cargo Next . At 19.2 feet long and 24.6 feet wide, Air One has eight motors and is intended for personal or cargo use. It can travel up to 155 mph. There are now more than 1,300 preorders for the aircraft, which is pursuing certification in Europe and the United States, Plaut said. Plaut discussed with Air Cargo Nex t the formation of Air, how eVTOL technology is changing the industry and how Air’s aircraft can efficiently transport cargo. What follows is an edited version of that conversation. Air Cargo Next : Can you share a bit about Air’s eVTOL technology, its customers and its cargo use cases? Rani Plaut : It all starts with electric aviation. Electric aviation is going for distributed propulsion, so you have many small motors versus one big one or two big ones. The complexity is dramatically lower, such as in cars, and, once you move to electric aviation or electrical propulsion, you also have a computerized control system. So, the flight control system is completely computerized and basically relying on what we saw in drones. You have a very large advancement in the controls. Now, if you add this to a vertical flight, you end up, we think, solving the three problems of aviation in general, and these are the skill set, the infrastructure and the noise. Skill set is reduced because of intercollegiate control system, and the vertical aspect resolves the infrastructure problem. So, we are set to change aviation as a whole. Since [Air One debuted at the Kentucky Derby], we have been growing organically with the waiting list. ... It's growing on a daily basis. We have far more purchase orders than we can meet in the first year. In general, the production of the aircraft is being designed by automotive engineers, working hand in hand with aerospace engineers, but ... the quarterbacking is done by the automotive companies, which means it's pointed to high-volume production. [caption id="attachment_57144636" align="alignright" width="300"] (Courtesy/Air)[/caption] When I say high volume, we're talking about 2,000 to 3,000 per year at the get-go. Now, since we started flying, we have been contacted with many use cases. And the cargo use case is a very easy one. The cargo unit is the same unit, simply without the seats and the avionics. And since we have started testing the aircraft as all the individual companies are doing by remotely piloting or autonomous piloting, it is already set for cargo use cases. So far, we have $17 million in purchase orders for cargo units . Air Cargo Next : How was this aircraft designed and how does it differ from other eVTOLs? RP : Design is at the heart of our process, and we are designing for comfort, production and high-volume production from the get-go. From inception, our team involves industrial engineering and design. So, we have our industrial designers sitting in the same room with engineers. This is not a ping-pong [match] between two teams. Our design is based on a patent that we have been granted. The core of the design is trying to keep things as simple as possible. We don't have any moving parts. Our solution is based on smart compromises and a little bit of aerodynamic trickery versus high complexity. Mankind has been very proficient in building very complex things. But at the end of the day, simplicity beats complexity. Air Cargo Next : What misconceptions about eVTOL aircraft do you see when it comes to cargo operations? RP : With cargo, it's not that it's easier or cheaper to transport something through the air, but if you have a supply chain, you can replace a sector or a segment of the supply chain using the aircraft. It’s going to be maybe more expensive than an electric vehicle or a UPS electric delivery truck, but the overall supply chain will benefit because of the reduction of inventory at some junctions. You're trying to replace the segments which are less likely to have a very negative ripple effect on the whole industry when something happens and, again, bad things happen. That's the reality of things.

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