Electric aircraft start-up has also secured deal with GA-ASI to supply its proprietary battery know-how for current and future platforms.
Electric aircraft developer Vaeridion says it has secured more than 100 new commitments for its nine-seat Microliner and completed a preliminary design review (PDR) ahead of a targeted first flight in mid-2028.
Meanwhile, the Munich-headquartered business has also secured a deal with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) to supply the US defence company with its proprietary airborne battery system.
Vaeridion maintains that six new customers – Czech business aviation operator ABS Jets, Avanti Air, Copenhagen Helicopter, E-Flight Academy, and a European lessor and Irish entity, both unnamed – have recently signed letters of intent for passenger or freighter variants of the Microliner, taking the company’s tally of pre-orders into treble figures.
Belgium’s ASL Group, which last June undertook to acquire 10 aircraft, is the launch customer.
“Surpassing 100 commitments while completing the PDR marks the most significant year in Vaeridion’s journey to date, demonstrating both unprecedented market demand and our technical readiness to deliver on that demand,” Ivor van Dartel, the firm’s chief executive, said at the ILA air show in Berlin on 10 June.
GA-ASI had announced earlier in the week that it would be “working with Vaeridion to evaluate [its] advanced battery pack technology for use in current and future GA-ASI platforms”.
That comes after Vaeridion in March inaugurated its new battery plant at the former Lilium facility in Oberpfaffenhofen, purchasing machines and other testing equipment from the defunct company’s administrator and securing a separate rental deal with the building’s landlord.
The company has always said that – in addition to developing the Microliner – it would offer its battery technology to other manufacturers to provide an additional revenue stream.
Vaeridion’s confidence in its prospects comes at a difficult time for European electric aircraft developers, with electric vertical take-off and landing pioneers Lilium and Volocopter, Dutch regional airliner designer Maeve, and France’s VoltAero all having collapsed into insolvency in the past 18 months, and with fellow start-up ZeroAvia undergoing financial restructuring and facing an uncertain future.
The post Vaeridion takes tally of Microliner commitments into treble figures first appeared on FlightGlobal.