Volocopter Start-Up Raises €1.2M, Breaks European Crowdfunding Record
E-volo’s Volocopter – supported by Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative - is safer, simpler, and cleaner than normal helicopters. Instead of one combustion engine, eighteen electrically driven rotors propel it.
Berlin, Germany, December 08, 2013 --(PR.com)-- The EU-supported Volocopter start-up E-volo has raised €1.2 million in a recent crowdfunding campaign, surpassing the €500.000 mark after only two and a half hours.
E-volo’s Volocopter – supported by Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative - is safer, simpler, and cleaner than normal helicopters. After successfully completing its first test flight last month, it is has now raised enough funding to turn from prototype to production.
The Volocopter is an environmentally friendly and emission-free private helicopter. Instead of one combustion engine, eighteen electrically driven rotors propel it.
The Climate-KIC start-up ran its successful crowdfunding campaign on the German platform Seedmatch.
http://www.seedmatch.de/e-volo
Maiden flight
The maiden flight and first test flights were conducted in the dm-arena in Karlsruhe with the prototype of the 2-person VC200 on 17 November 2013.
"There are already numerous requests for the Volocopter from around the world," said Alexander Zosel, managing director of E-volo.
The developing team of E-volo knew from the onset that the Volocopter was very easy to fly. Due to elaborate simulations at the Stuttgart University, they already knew that it was much more quiet than a helicopter. However, the pleasant low, rich sound and the lower-than-expected noise level caused great cheering among the E-volo team during the first flights.
Carbon lightweight design
People were eager to know whether there would be disturbing or even dangerous vibrations in the mechanic structure of the rotor plane.
"Such vibrations are a large problem for normal helicopters," stated E-volo managing director Stephan Wolf, adding that “there, the vibrations together with the deafening noise have lead to much discomfort on passenger flights in helicopters.“
Due to the complex structure of the Volocopter in carbon lightweight design, it was not possible to simulate the expected vibrations in the laboratory.
"The result of the first flight created a euphoria among the entire project team.“ Wolf and Zosel further stated that “not even the HD video cameras secured to the exterior carbon ring of the rotor plane captured the least vibrations."
Climate-KIC
Climate-KIC is the European Union’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of companies, academic institutions and the public sector.
The organisation is headquartered in London, and uses its centres across Europe to support start-up companies, to bring together partners on innovation projects and to educate students to bring about a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into products and services that help mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Climate-KIC currently has centres in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK and is represented in the regions of Valencia, Central Hungary, Emilia Romagna, Lower Silesia, Hessen and the West Midlands.
Climate-KIC is one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EU body tasked with creating sustainable European growth while dealing with the global grand challenges of our time.
http://www.climate-kic.org
E-volo’s Volocopter – supported by Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative - is safer, simpler, and cleaner than normal helicopters. After successfully completing its first test flight last month, it is has now raised enough funding to turn from prototype to production.
The Volocopter is an environmentally friendly and emission-free private helicopter. Instead of one combustion engine, eighteen electrically driven rotors propel it.
The Climate-KIC start-up ran its successful crowdfunding campaign on the German platform Seedmatch.
http://www.seedmatch.de/e-volo
Maiden flight
The maiden flight and first test flights were conducted in the dm-arena in Karlsruhe with the prototype of the 2-person VC200 on 17 November 2013.
"There are already numerous requests for the Volocopter from around the world," said Alexander Zosel, managing director of E-volo.
The developing team of E-volo knew from the onset that the Volocopter was very easy to fly. Due to elaborate simulations at the Stuttgart University, they already knew that it was much more quiet than a helicopter. However, the pleasant low, rich sound and the lower-than-expected noise level caused great cheering among the E-volo team during the first flights.
Carbon lightweight design
People were eager to know whether there would be disturbing or even dangerous vibrations in the mechanic structure of the rotor plane.
"Such vibrations are a large problem for normal helicopters," stated E-volo managing director Stephan Wolf, adding that “there, the vibrations together with the deafening noise have lead to much discomfort on passenger flights in helicopters.“
Due to the complex structure of the Volocopter in carbon lightweight design, it was not possible to simulate the expected vibrations in the laboratory.
"The result of the first flight created a euphoria among the entire project team.“ Wolf and Zosel further stated that “not even the HD video cameras secured to the exterior carbon ring of the rotor plane captured the least vibrations."
Climate-KIC
Climate-KIC is the European Union’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of companies, academic institutions and the public sector.
The organisation is headquartered in London, and uses its centres across Europe to support start-up companies, to bring together partners on innovation projects and to educate students to bring about a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into products and services that help mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Climate-KIC currently has centres in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK and is represented in the regions of Valencia, Central Hungary, Emilia Romagna, Lower Silesia, Hessen and the West Midlands.
Climate-KIC is one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EU body tasked with creating sustainable European growth while dealing with the global grand challenges of our time.
http://www.climate-kic.org
Contact
Climate-KIC
Angela Howarth, Head of Communications
+44 (0) 20 7492 1972
www.climate-kic.org
Angela Howarth, Head of Communications
+44 (0) 20 7492 1972
www.climate-kic.org
Contact
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