Category Filtering: 'tier-1'
The first piloted aircraft to make a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) powered by a hydrogen fuel cell made its first flight at Roland-Désourdy Airport (ICAO: CZBM) in Bromont, Québec, Canada, on March 27, 2025.
On Oct. 29, Tier 1 Engineering, in collaboration with Lung Biotechnology PBC, invited the Vertical Flight Society to the scenic Coachella Valley of California to witness the world’s first all-electric cross-country helicopter flight.
The battery-electric motor STC retrofit of the popular Robinson R44 offers a low-cost, low-risk path to sustainable vertical flight.
The electric helicopter revolution moved a big step closer to reality on June 4 with the first flight of Tier 1 Engineering’s third-generation e-R44 powered by a magniX magni250 "electric engine."
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Tier 1 Engineering is one of the pioneers of electric vertical flight and the only company in the world that’s been regularly flying a piloted electric helicopter since 2016 as part of its development program.
For the past five years, Tier 1 Engineering of Santa Ana, California, has been flight-testing and refining an electric-powered version of the Robinson R44 — the world’s best-selling general aviation helicopter for the past 22 years — with nearly 7,500 delivered.
Newly founded Eco Helicopters announced plans to start an on-demand UAM service in early 2021.
For many entrants in the race to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the speculative air taxi market is the prize at the end of the finish line — one that could someday yield orders for thousands of aircraft to ferry millions of passengers around congested cities. However, with numerous regulatory and social barriers standing in the way of that market — on top of the very real technological challenges associated with building and flying eVTOL aircraft — this type of on-demand urban air mobility (UAM) could take many years to come to fruition.
