Volocopter And Microsoft Address Cloud Computing Requirements for eVTOLs, UAM, and Autonomous Aviation – Commercial UAV News

Recently, Volocopter announced a collaboration with Microsoft to ensure Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing service, meets the VoloIQ's needs for commercial operations and makes it both secure and scalable for future expansion. VoloIQ, Volocopter's operating system for the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) industry, will take advantage of Azure to ensure safety and efficiency remain at the forefront of its operations.

"From the newest technologies to regulation, creating solutions to seamlessly address the cloud computing requirements for supporting continued advancements in aviation is a complex endeavor," said Uli Homann, CVP of Cloud and AI at Microsoft. "We certainly see the potential a secure, robust, and efficient cloud platform could offer aerospace and urban air mobility operators. Working in collaboration with Volocopter, we will start to build the foundation for a commercial model for an aerospace cloud."

Developed together withLufthansa Industry Solutions, VoloIQ is the brains behind Volocopter's eVTOL ecosystem and will monitor everything fromVoloCityair taxis toVoloPorts, Volocopter's app, and weather conditions on any given day. The system will cover booking and e-commerce, commercial scheduling, operational network planning, flight planning, flight monitoring, airspace digital twins, and vehicle data logging and analysis. CombiningVoloIQwithAzurewill help to securely interconnect all these UAM ecosystem elements into one integrated set of services.

"VoloIQ is the digital backbone for enabling the whole Volocopter UAM Services," Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter, stated in 2020. "Using big data, it will continuously improve efficiency and have a significant positive impact on our customer service quality. We selected Lufthansa Industry Solutions because of their leading know-how in certified aviation processes and large-scale aircraft operations. I am very much looking forward to the exciting outcomes of this cooperation."

Earlier this year, Volocopter raised $170M in a Series E round, bringing its funds to $579M since the first seed round in 2013. As the first and only eVTOL company to receive Design Organization Approval (DOA) from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Volocopter will use the funding for the certification of electric passenger air taxis, and to launch commercial air taxi services in cities like Singapore, Rome, and Paris. Furthermore, the company also announced Dirk Hoke, former CEO of Airbus Defense & Space, will join Volocopter as CEO in September 2022, bringing extensive experience from a technical, strategic, and commercial side.

"The ability to attract such a renowned industry leader is proof of the quality of the work done by our team," Stefan Klocke, Chairman of the Advisory Board at Volocopter, commented. "Volocopter is in the best shape ever: We fly our aircraft in cities worldwide, increased our valuation to over USD 1.7 billion, raised over USD 579 million in funds, and established historic industry milestones that make us the undisputed leader in UAM."

"My experience from Airbus and Siemens will help us monetize on the leading market position Volocopter has achieved under Florian's leadership," said Dirk Hoke, future CEO of Volocopter. "Volocopter's product lineup, certification progress, team spirit, and ecosystem approach put us in a unique competitive position."

Moreover, in late March 2022, Volocopter conducted the first crewed eVTOL flight in France, becoming a two-time pioneer as the first eVTOL developer to complete both crewed and remotely piloted test flights in France. The crewed flights were part of a week-long UAM test campaign to collect critical insights for launching the UAM industry in the next two years, in time for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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Volocopter And Microsoft Address Cloud Computing Requirements for eVTOLs, UAM, and Autonomous Aviation - Commercial UAV News