FlyNow: Salzburg start-up aims to reinvent the air taxi
The plans are ambitious and exciting. With electric flying taxis, companies like Lilium or Volocopter want to help shape the mobility of the future. In the meantime, dark clouds have gathered over the two startups. Lilium has already had to file for bankruptcy, and at Volocopter they are hoping for an entry by Geely, who could secure the know-how for a song and a dance—if the rumored 95 million euros can be called that. Comparisons with the Greek myth protagonist Icarus, who flew too high, got too close to the sun, and crashed, are also off-limits. Nevertheless, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is harsh in its criticism of Lilium:
“The seven-seater Lilium Jet has not yet proven that it can actually deliver the loudly promised flight performance one day. Furthermore, the company has not yet been able to demonstrate that there can be a viable business model for operating flying taxis.”
Despite the harsh judgment, the idea of electric flying drones is too important to simply write off. Jürgen Greil is also convinced of this.
“However, the approach must be the right one,” says the CEO and co-founder of the startup FlyNow.
The native Upper Austrian speaks with a subtle dialect and like someone who is convinced of his idea. While Lilium and Volocopter scaled up the well-known electric camera drones into small passenger aircraft capable of covering several hundred kilometers, Greil and his dedicated team are taking exactly the opposite route. He starts from the helicopter and "shrinks" it into flying devices that can transport a maximum of one to two passengers or cargo.
BMW i3 – Engineer Takes to the Skies
The think tank where this concept is maturing has nothing in common with the failed glossy startups. In an unadorned office building in the Itzling district of Salzburg, Jürgen Greil and his team of 15 are working on electric flight drones. The walls are unplastered, neon lights shine from the ceilings, and filter coffee machines are brewing in the offices. For the aerospace engineer and pilot's license holder, looking beyond the horizon is essential. This particularly applies to air transport, which, according to the Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research (JAAER), is cheaper than a car (2.1 cents) or an electric train (13.4 cents) with an average infrastructure cost of 1.6 cents per passenger kilometer.
The prototype is already at Airlink on the airfield. | Photo: press-inform/FlyNow
Wolfgang Gomoll has already taken a test seat. | Photo: Press-inform/FlyNow
"The Chinese have understood this and are investing in airports," explains Greil. Greil has worked for various car manufacturers such as Porsche and BMW and was one of the leading minds behind the electric car BMW i3. That's why he brings together automotive engineers and aircraft technicians in his FlyNow project. "One focuses on efficiency and cost control, while the others keep an eye on weight and aerodynamics," he says.
If ideas from two worlds are directed towards a single goal, it should work. Treading well-worn paths again makes no sense. This is shown by the fates of previous vertical takeoff aircraft, most of which have failed due to the complexity of their construction.
Quadruple Safety
That's why FlyNow relies not only on aerodynamic concepts, such as those of the flying wing pioneers Horten brothers, but also on coaxial rotor technology, where two counter-rotating rotors make an additional tail rotor unnecessary. The rotor head including rotor blades of a classic helicopter consists of about 100 parts. In the FlyNow eCopter, it comprises 18 parts including all small parts like bolts and screws. The two electric motors are stacked on top of each other, and the large blades spin at speeds of 650 and 750 revolutions per minute, which is slow and quiet but powerful enough to move the mass upwards. The blades are shaped differently than those of a classic helicopter. To ensure the safety of passengers in case of an emergency, each of the two electric motors is designed with quadruple redundancy, meaning four independent stators, power electronics, and power supply. According to Greil, the probability of a machine failure is 10-9, which is at the level of passenger airplanes. But even if that occurs, the eCopter can still fly to the next emergency landing site.
First Freight Flight 2027
In a garage in Puch near Salzburg, which Greil jokingly calls his "Man's Cave," we take a seat in a prototype. Here too, it doesn't smell of high tech, but of hard work. Nevertheless, the plans are no less ambitious. Initial tests have been underway at Salzburg Airport since July 2023. The first flight to transport cargo is scheduled for 2027. Only when this system works reliably, will people take a ride in the small helicopters. If everything goes according to plan, this is expected to happen at the end of 2028 or the beginning of 2029. Austria is significantly more suitable for such an undertaking than Germany because the Alpine Republic has a responsible authority, Austro Control, with a clearly defined contact person. Greil politely describes the German administrative structure as "federal," meaning a dense Teutonic bureaucratic jungle with many regulations and little decision-making power.
Empty Weight Under 400 Kilograms
The drone is mostly made of carbon and has an empty weight of around 360 kilograms. The battery has a capacity of 38 kilowatt hours, of which 75 percent is used, leaving 25 percent as a reserve. This results in a flight distance of about 50 kilometers, which is rarely flown as a single leg. The manned drones are essentially intended to replace taxi trips, at a similar price. This applies to the aircraft, which is expected to cost as much as a Mercedes E-Class, as well as the journey itself. Jürgen Greil aims for an ultimate goal of two euros per minute. "A helicopter hour costs about 2,000 euros. If you can reduce the price to 200 euros per hour, it becomes interesting," he calculates. The flight from Munich Central Station to the airport takes about 16 minutes, given a travel speed of 115 km/h or an average of 80 km/h including takeoff and landing. A pilot is not necessary. Nor is one created by artificial intelligence. Such a system is complex and would consume energy that could reduce the range by up to a third.
"For a predetermined route, which is flown repeatedly, no AI-pilot is needed. Stupidity generally makes no mistakes," Jürgen Greil knows.
Thus, like in an airplane, an autopilot takes over the controls. This is a fundamental difference from autonomous driving, where the car makes decisions by itself depending on the situation.
GPS - Guided to the Destination
The drones are guided by several independent satellite systems, such as Galileo, Copernicus, or the well-known GPS. This ensures that there is always a guide available, even if one should fail. The landing is particularly challenging, of course. Here, Real-Time Kinematic Positioning (RTK) helps, where precision is achieved through the reception of multiple global satellite data from the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and comparison with the current position. Naturally, the journey is coordinated with air traffic control, and passengers can contact a FlyNow expert at any time at the push of a button. The Austrian start-up EaseLink is also on board, developing a wireless charging system (Matrix Charging), where a metal cylinder lowers onto a black plate to start charging automatically. The small helicopters can land almost anywhere, even on flat roofs. When parked, the rotor blades fold up.
During flight, the small helicopter moves in corridors on predetermined routes and between a height of 500 and 1,000 feet, or around 150 to 300 meters, as dictated by the city. Due to its special design, the aircraft is extremely quiet and generates a noise level of only 55 decibels. This is usually less than the background noise of a large German city.
Booked via App
You book a flight via an app, and the software selects the appropriate drone in the background. Parameters such as the available battery charge and, of course, the proximity to the passenger play a role. The batteries are charged during the passenger change. Since this takes at least eight minutes and the battery is fully charged at the start of the flight shift, a charging speed of 33 kWh via direct current is sufficient. This way the batteries are not overly stressed, as the charge level oscillates between 45 and 85 percent. Each FlyNow eCopter is expected to operate about five hours a day and cover roughly 400 kilometers per day. The drones are expected to fly 275 days a year. This means that the batteries must be replaced after approximately 14 months.
Saudi Arabia is Interested
The goal is not to revolutionize entire automobile mobility and essentially bring all cars into the air; even ten percent less metal chaos would be a noticeable improvement. One eCopter replaces ten cars, which would be a blessing for traffic-congested Central European cities. However, the openness to new technologies is not as pronounced here as it is in, say, Riyadh. Therefore, Greil is already in contact with Saudi decision-makers.
FlyNow visited: Wolfgang Gomoll; press-inform
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