A few days ago, on May 7, the Israeli company Air officially presented a prototype of the two-seater electric drone Air One eVTOL, created specifically to conquer the small civil aviation market. The vehicle was first announced in October last year when engineers described an elegant octacopter that boasted relatively simple handling, a payload of 200 kilograms, and two passenger cabins with 771 horsepower peak power.

Now the aircraft has been shown in full size, but of course it is still a prototype, not a production model at the moment. But the developers are ready to share a lot of information about the Air One eVTOL – for example, due to the special design of the propellers and wing feathers, the octopter exhibits quite simple flight dynamics. This is a huge bonus as even inexperienced pilots can fly the plane – it only takes 16 hours to learn from scratch. For reference – after a series of lessons and training flights with an instructor for at least 40 hours, you can fly in a regular small civilian aircraft.

On the other hand, it is not entirely correct to compare the octacopter with small aircraft – the Air One eVTOL is more suitable for leisure and walks than for serious travel. The fact is that the car flies a relatively short distance of 177 kilometers. For an electric plane with two passengers, this is certainly a significant figure, but for civil aviation such autonomy seems very insufficient. Instead, the manufacturer announced support for fast charging, which allows you to recharge from 0% to 100% in just one hour.

Additionally, along with a full demonstration of the prototype, the creators of Air One eVTOL talked about their plans to put the aircraft up for sale. The company’s engineers plan to initiate flight tests in the third quarter of this year to obtain the required certifications in the United States in 2023. And if all goes well, in early 2024 the Israeli company will send an electric helicopter to the first buyers – pre-orders are already being actively accepted.