Volatus Infrastructure steadily expands its AAM vertiport activities

Wisconsin-based vertiport specialist Volatus Infrastructure has announced additional business that – while admittedly modest – reflects the company’s efforts to enlarge its foothold in the design and construction of advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure – an activity that, up until now, seems to be largely dominated by European and South American companies.

In what may be a replication of the Little Engine That Could mentality, Volatus Infrastructure has been building its vertiport business with a steady series of contracts and partnerships that has gradually lifted its profile in the AAM sector. The most recent was a deal struck this month with the privately-owned Bellafonte Airport in central Pennsylvania to have a single landing pad and charging station fully operational later this year – a deadline well in advance of the certification and production of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) that will eventually use them.

But that first installation is one of eight Bellafonte Airport has contracted with Volatus Infrastructure as part of its plans to add a full vertiport section to its small plane facility – a reflection of managers’ expectations of robust AAM activity they believe the future will bring.

In addition to being located near Penn State – a proximity that attracts more affluent air commuters for the college’s football games – Bellafonte Airport is only about an hour and a half away from the state’s biggest cities by car. Officials at the airfield believe that central position, along with an operating vertiport Volatus Infrastructure will enlarge over time, will make it a ready-to-go hub of regional AAM activities when services are expected to begin in 2025, and quickly scale from there.

“A project that started out as a way to get fans to Penn State games without sitting in traffic on US 80 and State Route 322, has turned into what will become the center of an eVTOL ecosystem for the East Coast,” said Grant Fisk, Volatus Infrastructure co-Founder. “We realized that Bellefonte airport is within 90 miles of all the major cities so it just makes sense to expand this location which will lay the foundation for the eVTOL infrastructure ecosystem for the East Coast.” 

Read: Skyports and Joby partner on ‘Living Lab’ trial vertiport facility 

If it can continue accumulating new business – both large and small – as it has since its founding in 2021, Volatus Infrastructure may manage yet to increase its girth and rival the vertiport divisions of sector leaders like Skyports, Volocopter, Groupe ADP, and Embraer’s AAM unit Eve Mobility. 

Indeed, in one of its bigger business moves of 2022, the company signed accords under which Eve will provide its Urban Air Traffic Management software solution to enable full automation of Volatus Infrastructure’s vertiports and AAM activity.

As part of its work to close ground with the international leaders in the sector, Volatus Infrastructure has developed a selection of three primary vertiport designs, featuring its agnostic AAM aircraft charging stations and maintenance programs.