Aspiring consumer eVTOL maker AIR has tasked Japanese electric motor major Nidec with development of the motor for the production model of AIR’s two-seater aircraft, AIR ONE. The two companies will design and develop a motor specifically for mid-sized electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

The pair’s objective is to develop an efficient motor customized to support the single-charge journeys of up to 100 miles targetted for AIR ONE. Funded by the BIRD Energy program of the BIRD Foundation (Israel-U.S Binational Industrial R&D Foundation) to support innovative joint clean energy US-Israel collaborations, the resulting enhanced-efficiency motor will be incorporated into AIR ONE’s continued flight testing and eventually into AIR’s production practices.

Israel-based AIR recently announced its participation in the US Air Force’s AFWERX Agility Prime programme to drive flight testing and additional eVTOL R&D efforts in the United States. Previous full-scale, full-weight flight tests have included hover-to-cruise and cruise-to-hover transitions.

More than 1,000 AIR ONE vehicles have been reserved via preorder.
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