Ascendance Flight Technologies Reveals Design for Hybrid VTOL

The French startup company revealed the design of the Atea, a five-seat VTOL scheduled to begin production in 2025. 

Designed to fly regionally, Atea will have a range of 400 km with 80 percent reduced carbon emissions, the company said in a news release. The aircraft features fan-in-wing technology, with eight rotors on two sets of wings and two horizontal propellers.

Additional features include a lift-plus-cruise configuration for vertical and horizontal flight and a skyview cabin. Atea is projected to be used for passenger transport, emergency services, and surveillance flights.

“We set-up Ascendance Flight Technologies with a very clear vision of what we wanted to achieve: to accelerate transition towards green aviation thanks to hybrid technology,” said Jean-Christophe Lambert, co-founder and CEO, in a statement. 

“The design of Atea is the concrete reflection of our values, our experience and of our know-how,” Lambert said. “The aircraft we are presenting to you today is the result of huge efforts by our R&D department, tests and trials on four prototypes, and a great deal of thought on costs and the ease of flying such an aircraft. Its characteristics provide all the performances expected by a sector that the ongoing transition has made more demanding”

Last year, the company—founded in 2018 by Lambert—raised €10 million in funding toward the development of its hybrid-electric platform. 

“This successful round of funding will allow us to focus on full-scale prototypes and patents in order to accelerate the development and industrialization of our technologies and products,” Lambert said at the time.