Podcast Ep. #14 – Dufour Aerospace Co-Founder Thomas Pfammatter on the aEro2 VTOL Electric Aircraft

On this episode I am speaking to Thomas Pfammatter, who is the co-founder of the Swiss electric aircraft startup Dufour Aerospace. Dufour is currently designing an electric aircraft with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities for the urban and rural transport market. The promise of their current aircraft, the aEro 2, is that with VTOL capabilities it can take-off and land pretty much anywhere, which can considerably reduce travel times, especially to places that are difficult to reach by car or train.

There is a long-standing compromise in aviation between taking-off vertically, and being able to travel fast horizontally. Dufour Aerospace believes that with electric propulsion it is possible to combine these two worlds. To achieve this, Dufour are using a tilt-wing design fitted with two propellers. The wing and attached propellers can pivot around a hinge between the horizontal and vertical planes, and thereby provide exceptional lift, stability and control characteristics even in slow flight. Dufour have proven their electrical aviation ambitions with the aEro1 aerobatic aircraft and are currently in the process of developing the tilt-wing aEro 2 airplane. In this episode you will learn about many of the details behind Dufour’s technology such as:

• the tilt-wing concept and the tail fan used for pitch control
• the aerodynamic importance of the vortex ring state
• the future of regional travel and how Dufour hopes to influence this space

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Selected Links from the Episode

• Dufour Aerospace:
  • The vision
  • The technology of the aEro 2
  • The aEro 1 aircraft
• aEro 2 flying simulation
• aEro 2 press release
• What does it feel like to fly an electric aircraft?
• The vortex ring state