Diamond Aircraft Industries H2EDT (testbed)
(Image credit: Diamond Aircraft)
H2EDT (testbed)
Diamond Aircraft Industries
Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria, Austria
www.diamondaircraft.com
Diamond Aircraft, headquartered in Austria with facilities in Canada and China, is among the leading aircraft manufacturers in general aviation. Founded in 1981, Diamond has pioneered many aviation firsts and achieved numerous milestones and industry accolades. Per Diamond Aircraft's website, as of August 2025, over 5,500 Diamond Aircraft airplanes are flown by private pilots, professional flight training operators and institutions worldwide.
Diamond Aircraft Industries acquired Volocopter in March 2025
The first announcement of Volocopter's takeover came on March 10, 2025, when Wanfeng Auto Holding Group Co., Ltd. confirmed the acquisition through a stock exchange announcement, as reported by China eVTOL News. Wanfeng Auto Holding Group acquired Volocopter for €10 million ($11 million USD). China eVTOL News offers both free and paid news options.
Diamond Aircraft Industries, a subsidiary of Wanfeng Aircraft Division under Wanfeng Auto Holding Group, is based in Austria and has stated that Volocopter's headquarters will remain in Bruchsal, Germany. As of December 26, 2024, reports indicated Volocopter had nearly 500 employees but Diamond Aircraft plans to retain only 160 to 185 employees. Additionally, Wanfeng Auto Holding Group has announced plans to invest several hundred million dollars into Volocopter.
Diamond Aircraft and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency
Diamond Aircraft is coordinating with the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) to advance the understanding of gaseous hydrogen’s potential as a fuel source for hybrid-electric powertrains in general aviation. Diamond Aircraft's H2EDT (Hydrogen-based Twin-engine Electrification and Digitalization Testbed) subscale technology demonstrator aircraft is part of a project consortium with researchers from the FH JOANNEUM (Institute of Aviation and Electronic Engineering), the TU Graz (ITnA), the HyCentA and the IESTA.
H2EDT subscale (half-scale) hybrid-hydrogen eVTOL testbed aircraft
The H2EDT (Hydrogen-based Twin-engine Electrification and Digitalization Testbed) will be a uncrewed subscale hybrid-hydrogen eVTOL technology demonstrator aircraft. The design is an experimental one to explore the challenges that hydrogen poses as a fuel for aviation. Certification and design challenges specific to hydrogen storage and distribution systems are also being investigated.
The company's Wiener Neustadt facilities plans to design, manufacture and to flight test the technology demonstrator until the end of 2025. (When the company revealed they would make a hydrogen hybrid eVTOL testbed aircraft in April 2025, the company released a concept design technology demonstrator aircraft drawing but no pictures of the actual aircraft being built were published by the company.)
No flight specifications have been released by the company as of August 2025. The aircraft graphic has a see-through fuselage drawing that reveals some of the battery and hydrogen components inside the aircraft. The aircraft has two tandem high wings. The front wing is a forward swept design and the rear wing is backward swept wing. Each end of the tandem wings have booms for the eight VTOL-only propellers. The rear wing has two pusher propellers attached to it and have downward facing winglets. The aircraft has 10 electric motors and uses a hydrogen hybrid-electric power source that includes batteries. The fuselage is made from carbon fiber composite to give the aircraft a high strength to low weight ratio. The landing gear type is fixed skid landing gear.
Another project goal of the company is to define certification and design guidelines to reconfigure the conventional propulsion system of the company's single engine four passenger DA40 general aviation aircraft or for the twin-engine four passenger DA42 general aviation aircraft (or both), to provide a cleaner hydrogen powered propulsion system for their customers.
It is important to remember that all concept design aircraft specifications are estimated and can or will change as prototypes and production models are made, tested and flown with real world avionics, components and payloads.
Specifications:
- Aircraft type: Subscale (half-scale) hydrogen-hybrid eVTOL testbed aircraft
- Piloting: Remote
- Cruise speed: Unknown
- Propellers: 2 pusher propellers, 8 VTOL-only propellers
- Electric motors: 10 electric motors
- Power source: Hydrogen hybrid-electric power source including batteries
- Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
- Wings: Tandem high wings (the front wing is a forward swept wing and the rear wing is a backwards swept wing). The rear wing has downward facing winglets.
- Landing gear: Fixed skid landing gear
- Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) uses multiple propellers or electric ducted fans, each powered by electric motors, to increase safety through redundancy. If one or more components fail, the remaining ones can still ensure a safe landing. There are also redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy. Having multiple redundant systems on any aircraft decreases having any single point of failure. The aircraft has no moving surfaces or tilting parts when transitioning from vertical to forward flight and the reverse which increases safety by reducing complexity.
Related Aircraft:
- Diamond Aircraft Industries H2EDT (testbed)
- Volocopter e-volo VC007 (defunct)
- Volocopter VC1 (defunct prototype)
- Volocopter VC2 (defunct prototype)
- Volocopter e-volo VC100 (defunct)
- Volocopter e-volo VC400 (defunct)
- Volocopter e-volo uVC100 cargo (defunct)
- Volocopter e-volo uVC200 cargo (defunct)
- Volocopter e-volo uVC400 cargo (defunct)
- Volocopter VC Evolution 1P (defunct)
- Volocopter VC Evolution 2P (defunct)
- Volocopter 2X (prototype)
- Volocopter VC200 (defunct)
- Volocopter VoloCity (prototype)
- Volocopter VoloDrone (prototype)
- Volocopter VoloRegion (prototype)
- Volocopter VoloXPro (production model)
- Wanfeng Auto Holding Group Wanfeng Diamond (concept design)
Company Insights
Resources:
- Diamond Aircraft website
- Volcopter website
- Article: Diamond Aircraft teams up with Austrian Research Institutes to explore hybrid hydrogen-electric aircraft propulsion, Vertical Magazine, Apr. 30, 2025
- Article: Diamond Aircraft Leads Hydrogen-electric Hybrid Propulsion Project, Aviation International News Online, May 1, 2025
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