• 30 Apr 2022 01:39 AM
• 0

Swiss Dufour Starts in Canada

On April 6, Dufour Aerospace, an innovative Swiss eVTOL company, announced a base of operations in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The company is developing the Aero2 and Aero3 tilt wing eVTOL aircraft and plans to hire software engineers to support its aircraft development. The Aero2 is a 331 lb (150 kg) maximum takeoff weight uncrewed VTOL drone capable of carrying an 88-lb (40-kg) payload; it uses four wing-mounted propellers and two tail fans powered by a hybrid-electric or battery energy source. The Aero3 is a manned, eight-seat hybrid-electric tilt-wing aircraft with a 6,170 lb (2,800 kg) maximum takeoff weight; the design features a 39.4-ft (12-m) long fuselage and a 44.6-ft (13.6-m) wingspan with six wing-mounted propellers and two tail motors. 

The Montreal area is the home of the world’s third-largest aerospace cluster (after Seattle and Toulouse), and Dufour is the latest eVTOL enterprise to establish a footprint in the Montreal area to take advantage of the local talent pool and recent federal and provincial government support for sustainable aviation technology initiatives. Other eVTOL companies active in Quebec include Jaunt Air Mobility and Unither Bioelectronics (a subsidiary of United Therapeutics); Bell Canada, CAE and Pratt & Whitney Canada are also all in the Montreal area.