“the ‘e-volo‘ multicopter is a prototype personal transport vehicle, steerable via joystock and powered by sixteen propellers to hover in the air. a team of german professionals– physicist thomas senkel, programmer stephan wolf, and designer philipp halisch, as well as alexander zosel– have just completed the first prototype and test flight of the craft, which they imagine for use towards entertainment purposes, aerial photography and inspection, and short-distance travel.

in ‘e-volo’, altitude, directional control, and balance are automatically managed by onboard computers, while the driver steers by using a simple joystick. the designers note that the program could be integrated with GPS and obstacle detection systems to enable unmanned flight. each of the vehicle’s sixteen motors uses an off-the-shelf battery and is independently controlled, easing maintenance and repairs.

the craft is energy and economically efficient, with a one-hour flight estimated to cost about 6 euros’ worth of electricity. redundancy engineering permits ‘e-volo’ to land safely even if up to four of its motors fail, and the vehicle can also be protected by safety parachute. currently ‘e-volo’ should permit flights of up to 20 minutes, but by integrating a hybrid gas system, or as the capacity of batteries increases, the engineering team suggests that flights could last over an hour.”

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The e-volo team
Thomas Senkel developed the concept as a graduate physicist. He did the complete mechanical and electrical construction of the e-volo multicopter. His specialties are research & development of electric drives and ultralight vehicles and aircrafts. He is an enthusiastic paragliding and ultralight pilot.
Stephan Wolf developed the software from scratch, which controls the e-volo’s onboard flight computer. He has more than 25 years of experience developing core drivers and embedded software development in the industry. Alexander Zosel is responsible for marketing, sales, and public relations. He has developed several patents and utility modules and is an avid paragliding pilot and flight instructor.

Thanks to
Philipp Halisch for the design studies. He is a qualified product designer. He studied in Germany, Mexico and Spain, where he realized projects in urban space. He investigated the needs and practicability of an electrically-operated multicopter as an urban means of transportation.