Toulouse-based aviation startup Ascendance Flight Technologies says it has secured $11.7 million in new funding from investors to accelerate development and testing of its hybrid-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) passenger plane, Atea. The craft’s first public flight is planned for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
Founded just three years ago, Ascendance is hoping to further increase the pace of moving Atea toward the prototype stage. The five-seater VTOL plane is hybrid powered by Ascendance’s Sterna system combining electrical battery drive with kerosene combustion. It is intended to rival helicopters for medium-distance passenger transportation. The company says current designs will lower comparative carbon emissions by up to 80% and cut noise generation by a measure of four, providing a maximal range of 400 km at top speeds of 200 km/hr.
The company was founded in 2018 by veterans of Airbus’s E-Fan program that continues developing of…
