Let Everyone Enjoy the Future of Urban Air Travel

Vertax is a Chinese eVTOL manufacturer. The company was founded in 2021 with a research and development center in Shanghai. It’s subsidiary, FCOURIER, develops and manufactures Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

What is the strategic development plan for Vertax?

Our vision is to “let everyone enjoy the future of urban air travel.” As for the product strategy of Matrix1, we will follow the path of “cargo first, then passenger” and “segregated from the national airspace system first, then integrated into it” to enable the public to benefit from the convenience of urban air mobility. We also intend to participate in the development of UAM infrastructure.

How would the experience gained from previous projects transfer to the design of Matrix1?

Our members were the core technical personnel of national aircraft  models such as the ARJ21 and the C919 before we established Vertax and its subsidiary, FCOURIER; thus, we have been designing “small aircraft” in the same way as “big aircraft” which differentiates us from other drone  and eVTOL companies. FCOURIER has successfully developed and manufactured the first generation of a fixed-wing UAV called E6. In our past design practice, we accumulated profound experience in autonomous flight control systems and Multiphysics simulation. We have flight control algorithms, flight control software and hardware, battery management systems, and motors all under control. Our competitive advantage in technology allows us to take the initiative in the development cycle, supply chain, cost, and risk management. Given our experience in developing flight control and simulation systems, the development of Matrix1 is going very smoothly.

What are the factors determining the design of Matrix1?

The overall design of Matrix1 builds on two main factors – safety and cost.

The current phase of the advanced air mobility sector is equivalent to the early stages of automotive and aircraft design. Therefore, achieving a high level of safety at an acceptable cost, building confidence for the government and society, and shortening the airworthiness certification cycle are the keys to the business success of eVTOLs.

As for the aircraft’s safety features, we carefully analyzed the reliability level of the existing supply chain and implemented multiple redundancies into the distributed power system. We also created a unique design for the flight control system, adopting a higher redundancy and management algorithm to provide a higher level of safety in hardware and bus technology.

What is Matrix1’s airworthiness certification plan?

We plan to conduct the first full-scale prototype flight in early 2023 and submit the airworthiness application in the same year. We expect to obtain the airworthiness certificate in 2026, after which the Matrix1 will enter service. Since we have accumulated a decent amount of experience in autonomous control from our UAV, our goal is to implement autonomous control on passenger vehicles, which we believe is the key to the future success of the passenger-grade version of Matrix1. Before obtaining the airworthiness certification for the finalized passenger-grade model from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), we target to obtain the airworthiness certificate in non-passenger-carrying areas first, such as intercity cargo. We want Matrix1 to enter into service as soon as possible so that we can acquire operational data as early as possible.