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Supernal's eVTOL demonstrator has been photographed tethered to the ground at Mojave Air & Space Port.
A full-scale electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft is undergoing ground testing at Mojave Air & Space Port in California.
The aircraft belongs to Hyundai subsidiary Supernal and is a full-scale technology demonstrator.
Images of the aircraft were captured by photographer Matt Hartman. They show the eVTOL anchored to the ground outside the former Rotary Rocket site near the end of the Mojave flight line. The aircraft has tilting rotors at the wingtips and four fixed-lift propellers on booms that connect the wing to a high-set “Bronco tail”—named after the distinctive tail of the Rockwell OV-10 Bronco. The platform's association with Supernal was earlier reported by The Air Current.
Looking fairly large for an eVTOL air taxi and clearly intended to be piloted, the aircraft has wide-set main gear. Portable electric fans are seen connected by ducts to the wingtip nacelles and wing booms, presumably to provide ventilation to the propulsion units.
This was not the first mystery eVTOL to be spotted at Mojave. In 2019, a still-unidentified lift-plus-cruise aircraft was photographed flying at the airport. It had six lift props on booms joining the tips of tandem wings and on the V tail, plus an aft-fuselage pusher propeller. A fuel-cell-powered cargo eVTOL developed by Toyota was photographed flying at Mojave in 2020.
The former Rotary Rocket site at the desert airport consists of a 9,190-ft.2 workshop that is 42 ft. tall and a 7,990-ft.2 assembly hangar that is 85 ft. tall. Both are pre-engineered steel buildings that were used to build the Roton reusable launch vehicle, which mated a novel engine to a helicopter-style landing system.
While the site provides plenty of indoor space, the fact that the eVTOL aircraft has been moved outdoors into public view, tethered to the ground and hooked up to air conditioning, suggests Supernal is preparing to begin powered tests.
—Guy Norris contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This article was updated Feb. 13 following identification of the aircraft.
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