Overair Butterfly
Quick Summary
Overair was founded in 2004 by Abe Karem, founder ofLeading Systems and Frontier Systems. At Frontier Systems, Abe led the development of Optimum Speed Rotor (OSR) technology and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems, as well as the A160 Hummingbird Optimum-Speed Rotor UAV, now owned by Boeing.
Karem Aircraft became an independent company and rebranded as Overair Inc. in January of 2020, following a $25 million investment by Hanwha Systems. Upon being approved for the investment, Hanwha Systems became a 30% owner of Overair, Inc. Overair has over 100+ years of combined aerospace engineering and management experience, as well as 20+ years of VTOL propulsion development experience. $150 million dollars of military and private funding of future tech development also aid the company.
Overair, formerly Karem Aircraft, based in Santa Ana, CA, USA
Stage of Development
Preliminary Design
Prototype Build
Flight Testing
Certification
Commercially Operating
Technical Details
Aircraft Type: Winged VTOL, Intercity
Powerplant: All-Electric
Range: 100 miles (161 km)
Top Speed: 200 mph (322 km/h)
Propeller Configuration: Quad tiltrotor with Optimum Speed Tiltrotor (OSTR) technology; large rotor, slow turning propeller.
Noise signature: "at low point of human hearing range"
Passenger/Payload Capacity: 1 pilot, 5 passengers
Autonomy Level: Piloted
Flight Control Redundancy: dual, triple in certain cases
Dimensions: Unknown
Certification Date: 2025
From Karem:
Our Take on Overair
Since Overair is a smaller firm than the large aerospace corporations that have dominated the industry for decades, they'll most likely be able to accommodate some of the requests that Uber has that other companies wouldn't. However, their largest hurdle is completing their preliminary design process and moving forward with production of a prototype and testing of the Butterfly. Overair currently plans to have an operable ride-sharing eVTOL aircraft available by 2025; their continued focus on battery and aerodynamic efficiency has the potential to give the Butterfly a economic advantage over the other competitors in the urban air vehicle market.
References
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