Vaeridion is planning to develop a version of the Microliner that will be able to accommodate one or two stretchers, medical staff and patients.
GENEVA—German startup Vaeridion has partnered with Aero-Dienst, a full-service provider of business aviation and air ambulance services, to explore adapting the Microliner electric regional airplane for air ambulance operations. The two partners will also collaborate on exploring maintenance and support solutions for the nine-seat Microliner.
Aero-Dienst, a subsidiary of Germany’s ADAC—an automobile membership club roughly analogous to AAA in the U.S.—is responsible for the operations and maintenance of its parent company’s fixed-wing fleet, often used for repatriation flights of tourists and other stranded ADAC members.
Speaking to Aviation Week on the sidelines of the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition here, Vaeridion founder and CEO Ivor van Dartel said his company is planning to develop a version of the Microliner that will be able to accommodate one or two stretchers, medical staff and patients.
“There are regions of the world, for example, the Nordics, where people live in very remote areas, and if they have a medical episode, they need to be treated in a distant capital city,” van Dartel said. “That can be very difficult to do with expensive helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft, but an emissions-free, noise-free and low-operating-cost plane like ours can be a more efficient solution.”
On maintenance, van Dartel said that partnering with Aero-Dienst—one of the largest business jet maintenance, repair and overhaul companies in Germany—can be a key part of the “network of ecosystem partners” the company hopes to assemble to support its aircraft.
The most major element of the Microliner’s maintenance workload will be the wing-integrated battery module, which must be replaced along scheduled intervals, according to van Dartel.
“We’ll need to have partners to do that work,” he said. “Aircraft mechanics to date have not been trained to deal with high-voltage components. So there’s training we need to develop for the maintainers of tomorrow—how to deal with this technology, but also being able to service those customers who don’t want to lose their aircraft for too many days each time the system needs upgrading.”
The new partnership announcement comes as Vaeridion works to complete its concept and technology validation phase ahead of the launch of its preliminary design review this summer, van Dartel says.
The company is targeting European Union Aviation Safety Agency type certification toward the end of the decade.
Related Content
