AIR’s Agility Prime Extension Shows Military Interest In Light eVTOLs

Since its establishment in 2020, the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX Agility Prime program has partnered with leading electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) companies such as Archer, Beta and Joby, accelerating their development efforts while exploring potential military use cases for eVTOL technology.

While those platforms all fall along the larger end of the eVTOL spectrum and are capable of carrying around 1,000 lb. (1,400 lb. for Beta’s ALIA), the Air Force also has an interest in exploring smaller vehicles with lighter payloads between 400 and 500 lb., as well as even smaller aircraft with payloads of 100-250 lb. 

Within that middle category, known within Agility Prime as Area of Interest (AOI) 2, Israeli startup and program member AIR believes that its two-seat eVTOL, the AIR ONE, could have broad applicability for niche logistical and defense-related missions.

The Air Force seems to agree, too, as evidenced by a contract extension offered to AIR in late December to join the fourth phase of the Agility Prime program.

“There are a number of parameters, but the ruling two parameters of Agility Prime are range and capacity,” says Rani Plaut, CEO of AIR. “The larger platforms are talking about up to 1,000 lb. The smallest [including the single-seat Hexa from Agility Prime member Lift Aircraft] are between 100 and 200 lb., and our level is somewhere between 400 and 600 lb.

“We’re different because most of the companies that have gone this path have gone to the larger scale,” he adds. “Because of our interest in the private sector, which for us means two people plus luggage, we sit perfectly in the center of their requirements.”

The AIR ONE is a fixed-wing, multirotor eVTOL with a flight endurance of roughly 1 hr. The aircraft is propelled by four pairs of fixed, contrarotating rotors driven by eight battery-enabled electric motors.

While the AIR ONE is being designed primarily for personal ownership and recreational use, Plaut says the aircraft could be ideal for transporting small loads for the military in an uncrewed configuration at a far lower cost than a helicopter.

“We say that we carve out a portion of the mission set of a Humvee and a portion of a Black Hawk,” Plaut says. “Imagine if you had to move 500 pounds of supplies to a frontline battle area. If you have to take a Humvee, it’s going to need a convoy of three to four vehicles for security. Even if you want to use a Black Hawk or other helicopter, you’re talking about two crewmembers and unit prices between $19-40 million. So generally, the talk is about providing the capability or very high flexibility to move things through the air, not for general logistics, but for specific cases in logistics where the scenario requires.”

The contract extension comes as AIR works to identify sites for its U.S. flight testing and manufacturing facilities, as the company plans to mass produce and certify its vehicles in the country. Plaut said discussions with several municipalities are advancing, adding that he plans to start flying in the U.S. “within the next few months.”

Looking to the year ahead, Plaut says that AIR is focused on flying a production-conforming prototype, which he expects to be fully assembled around the beginning of the second half of the year.

Unlike some other developers of personal-use eVTOLs that are designing their vehicles to fly under the FAA’s Part 103 rules for ultralight aircraft, AIR is pursuing the formal type certification process under the agency’s Part 21.17b classification for powered-lift aircraft. At the same time, Plaut said he is hopeful that AIR will be able to certify through the FAA’s proposed MOSAIC rule for light-sport aircraft–assuming the final rule is published on time–which would expedite the certification process and allow the company to get to market quicker.

Either way, Plaut said he is hopeful that the company can certify the AIR ONE in time to begin initial customer deliveries in the U.S. by early 2025.

Plaut also says he is confident that there is a large market for recreational eVTOLs in the U.S., predicting that between 10,000 and 15,000 people will want to buy the vehicles “regardless of price” within the first year that they are available. As such, he said he is pleased to see healthy competition in the light eVTOL category, under which other startups like Jetson, Opener and Lift will also be competing.

But Plaut also said he believes that AIR has a critical advantage over those other companies, which are developing single-seat vehicles that are restricted in size and performance by the parameters of the FAA’s Part 103 rules.

“We think this is a deficiency,” Plaut says. “If you want to have a viable product it has to be practical for the user. For us, having room for two passengers and luggage is a key differentiator, and I don’t see anyone else on the market, in our category, who can seriously compete with what we’re doing.”