Turin confirms its vocation for aerospace. SkyGate, the business accelerator dedicated to Advanced Air Mobility, will support Manta Aircraft, the first Italian project for the development of vertical take-off and landing aircraft with electric propulsion (eVTOL), in the EASA certification process in the management of the first urban experimentation on the City Turin Metro.
The first eVTOL aircraft with turbine and batteries was developed by the Italian Manta Aircraft, it is called ANN2 and will offer combined vertical take-off and landing capabilities for the transport of passengers on long distance routes of a few hundred kilometers. The aircraft will be designed in Sesto Calende, where the best professionals in the world for vertical flight are located, while the certification process will be coordinated in Turin thanks to the agreement with SkyGate, the accelerator dedicated to Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). .
SkyGate, the initiative promoted by the Always and DigiSky companies, based in the Aeritalia airport of Turin, offers skills and infrastructures to welcome and facilitate all those business projects that have as their objective the development and validation of innovative technologies, systems and aircraft belonging to the segment of the new general aviation. Turin Aeritalia airport will therefore host the first prototypes of ANN2 for the flight experimentation program, essential for the certification of the aircraft according to the new EASA (European union Aviation Safety Agency) requirements which will allow the use of these aircraft both in spaces urban and commercial aircraft.
Initially, Manta decided to place on the market a two-seater hybrid-powered aircraft intended for personal mobility with interesting performance. In fact, it will cruise at 300 kilometers per hour, and will allow for intracity, intercity and regional operations. For the experimentation of the ANN2, SkyGate will field an exceptional test pilot, Maurizio Cheli, who boasts an extraordinary flight experience: from his orbital mission with the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986 to the flight tests of military aircraft of high performance, such as Project Pilot Eurofighter. Maurizio Cheli, founder of DigiSky, in 2009 experimented with one of the first electric aircraft in the world, the SkySpark, with which he recorded a world speed record, literally anticipating the advent of technologies by over ten years. that today make Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) possible.
To accelerate its validation process, ANN2 will be integrated into the “Urban Air Mobility Digital Twin”, that is the digital simulation environment that SkyGate is developing in collaboration with ENAV and the Politecnico di Torino to facilitate the evaluation and certification of new aircraft in urban airspace.
According to Lucas Marchesini, CEO of Manta Aircraft, “the Italian aeronautical industry has the great opportunity to play a leading role in the nascent AAM sector, capitalizing on decades of experience and aeronautical excellence projects and integrating innovative concepts also deriving from the automotive industry, of which Turin is the Italian capital. ANN2 will be an example of the Italian inventiveness and ability to create synergies between companies with long experience, thus giving birth to the Italian AAM ecosystem “.
“The development of eVTOL aircraft” – explains Maurizio Cheli – “represents an epochal turning point for general aviation, which will be revitalized with the introduction of innovative technologies capable of offering a new way of conceiving and managing personal mobility”
Paolo Pari, founder of DigiSky, adds: “SkyGate will provide the certified skills in the management of design, production and aerial work (DOA, POA, SPO) essential to accompany the Manta Aircraft project up to the complete operation of the Italian AAM ecosystem. in national airspace and around the world “.
SkyGate’s goal is to create an aeronautical hub for the personal air mobility of the future, upgrading the existing infrastructures of the Turin Aeritalia Airport into experimentation and development laboratories for new technologies for aircraft intended for passenger and freight transport. Manta’s ANN2 business project will be among the first to benefit from this industrial opportunity, becoming part of a fully developed ecosystem.
According to the estimates of the most accredited international analysts, the Advanced Air Mobility market could reach € 241 billion by 2035. Of these, € 141 billion will be generated by the passenger transport segment, while the remainder will derive from freight transport and the management of passenger transport segments. emergencies and surveillance. It is precisely to intercept this great opportunity that SkyGate was born in Turin, relaunching its international role in the aeronautical sector: the Turin accelerator will therefore be a catalyst for all entrepreneurial activities relating to the field of urban air mobility, also in harmony with the project. of the City of Aerospace.
This agreement is one of the first examples of collaboration between the SkyGate accelerator and an aircraft manufacturer eVTOL, and it is significant that Manta is indeed an Italian manufacturer.