Switzerland’s Dufour Aerospace Unveils Tilt-Wing eVTOL

The small, uncrewed eVTOL is piloted remotely and has a payload capacity of 88 lbs (40 kg). Its four propellers are mounted on a single wing that tilts from horizontal to vertical, allowing it to hover like a helicopter as well as fly like an airplane.

“It’s efficient in hover. It’s efficient in transition. It’s efficient in cruise,” Thomas Pfammatter, Dufour’s co-founder and CEO, told FLYING.

In a statement released Thursday, Duford said Aero2 is designed to perform multiple missions, including:

The small aircraft’s nose cone, which can be used to carry payloads, can be switched out very quickly, the company said.

The company said Aero2 has an MTOW of 330 lbs (150 kg) and a flight time of up to three hours, using the eVTOL’s hybrid-electric propulsion system. That would give it a range of about 216 nm (400 km), Dufour said. Running on pure battery power, Aero2 can fly for as long as an hour.

Aero2′s cruise speed is touted to be as fast as 92 kts (170 km/h).

Dufour said Aero2 is designed to fully comply with certification regulations under EASA and is expected to enter production sometime in 2023.

The company is also developing a larger, crewed tilt-wing eVTOL called Aero3, which would be intended for missions that are now performed by light, single and twin-engine helicopters. The first prototype of Aero3 is expected to fly next year, Pfammatter previously said.