German air taxi maker Volocopter has filed for bankruptcy, the company has said.
“Despite recent intensive fund-raising efforts, finding a viable solution to maintain regular operations outside of insolvency proceedings has not been possible,” Volocopter said in a news release published on Sunday.
“Business operations will continue as usual during the provisional insolvency proceedings. The provisional insolvency administrator has now held a staff meeting to inform employees about the current situation and answer initial questions about the proceedings.”
According to Volocopter, the company plans to develop and enact a “restructuring concept” by the end of February.
Volocopter has made plenty of headlines in recent years and videos of its unconventional vehicles have gone viral on social media, showing air-taxi prototypes and test flights taking place around the world.
Founded in 2011, the company has sought to be a leader in the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) market, pushing to develop safe, quiet and sustainable electric aircraft that would operate in cities.
In 2022, Neom, the futuristic city being built in Saudi Arabia, announced a $175 million investment in the air mobility company, along with a promise to operate electric air taxi services there.
In 2021, Volocopter announced plans to have its electrical air taxi service in operation during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Despite successful test flights, it failed to attain the proper permits to make that vision a reality.
It has conducted public test flights in cities including Singapore, Dubai and Paris.
“Numerous successful financing rounds have driven the company's development and operations in the past,” the company's insolvency announcement said. “With one of the lowest burn rates in the industry, Volocopter has successfully operated in an extremely difficult financial environment.”
According to Volocopter, it still plans to enter the market in 2025 following successful certification by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
It also said it's “nearing the finish line” to launch its much talked about VoloCity urban aircraft.
Volocopter previously won financial backing from Intel and Daimler, and staged several successful financing rounds from investors such as Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, MS&AD Ventures and TransLink Capital since its founding.
Despite the insolvency filing, Dirk Hoke, chief executive of Volocopter, was optimistic.
“We are ahead of our industry peers in our technological, flight test, and certification progress. That makes us an attractive company to invest in while we organise ourselves with internal restructuring,” he said.
The view from The National
The specs: 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali
Price, base / as tested Dh207,846 / Dh220,000
Engine 6.2L V8
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque 624Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined 13.5L / 100km
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
England Test squad
Joe Root (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Dawid Malan, Jamie Porter, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes.
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Roma 4
Milner (15' OG), Dzeko (52'), Nainggolan (86', 90 4')
Liverpool 2
Mane (9'), Wijnaldum (25')
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Sebastian Stefan, Sebastian Morar and Claudia Pacurar
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2014
Number of employees: 36
Sector: Logistics
Raised: $2.5 million
Investors: DP World, Prime Venture Partners and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE
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