Aquinea Volta

Volta
Aquinea
Pompertuzat, France
www.aquinea.fr/actualites-volta

The Aquinea Volta is an all-electric helicopter developed by the French company Aquinea and the French National School of Civil Aviation.

Volta is a helicopter with a main rotor and a variable blade pitch. It has auto-rotation capability. The helicopter's frame was based on the ultralight helicopter prototype Microcopter MC1. The motors are produced by Enstroj (now EMRAX) with 122 hp (90 kW). It has a length of 24.6 ft (7.5 m), height of 7.7 ft (2.35 m) and a rotor blade span of 23 ft (7 m). It weighs 924 lbs (420 kg) and has a payload weight of 220 lbs (100 kg). It is designed for one passenger although a two seat trainer has been envisioned. A 40 minute flight time is expected and it has passed 15 minutes of battery powered manned flight.

The Volta’s first official stationary flight was on February 17, 2016. It had a 3 minute flight on September 17, 2016. On December 3, 2016 it had a World Record 15 minute manned test flight.

Aquinea has several partners on the project. Along with EMRAX for its motors ENAC covers avionics and logistics, SOFIZ Industrie produced the frame, Protolec and AlphaVague worked on the electronics and Heli-Horizon partnered on the flight test.

Specifications:

Resources:

• Volta: Website
• Volta: Twitter
• Aquinea: Website
• Video: Volta: The Electric Helicopter, ENAC France, April 27, 2016
• Article: Flight testing of Volta electric helo in full swing, Vertical Magazine, October 21, 2016

• Video: Volta World Record 15 minute flight, December 3, 2016

• Article: French Electric Helicopter Has Very Public Outing, Sustainable Skies, April 15, 2017

• Article: Volta 100% Electric Helicopter – World Record 15mn Flight, SIA Magazine, July 22, 2018