ERC System begins flight testing its full-size Romeo prototype, one of Europe’s heaviest and largest eVTOL aircraft

Munich start-up ERC System has actually started trip screening of its full-size, third-generation model of its eVTOL airplane model, called Romeo.

Evaluating almost 3 tonnes and showing off a 16-metre wingspan, ERC claims Romeo is amongst the biggest and heaviest eVTOL airplane flown in Europe up until now. Trip screening originally started back in November 2025.

Dr. David Löbl, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ERC System, stated: “We are thrilled to have actually reached this vital landmark in our goal to make airborne transport a lot more financially viable, particularly for important objectives.

” The crewed airplane we plan to license in 2031 is hybrid-electric. It removes and lands up and down like a helicopter yet utilizes wings to travel successfully like a plane. This permits us to run at a portion of the expense of helicopters, while minimizing transportation times considerably contrasted to much less expensive, yet slower ground-based automobiles. A clear advantage for important objectives, such as in interhospital person transportations.”

Its effective first trip comes as the start-up increases critical collaborations with airrescue and HEMS drivers and prepares an expansion right into the uncrewed airborne logistics market.

ERC’s trip examinations on full-size, full-mass models are planned to take on the obstacles of flying hefty
eVTOL airplane as early as feasible in the growth procedure.

This technique stands for a hidden growth viewpoint, which ERC has actually carried out given that the initial full-mass model ‘Mirror’ took off in 2023. The understandings produced throughout the present trip examination project will certainly notify the growth of ERC’s initial readily offered airplane.

Leading HEMS drivers from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and past are currently aboard. DRF
Luftrettung, a worldwide leader in this area, has actually dedicated to a critical collaboration.

Dr. Krystian Pracz, Chief Executive Officer of DRF Luftrettung, stated: “The model’s effective first trip stands for the shift from principle to useful screening. As an essential critical companion of ERC System, DRF Luftrettung is adding clinical, technological, and trip procedures knowledge from over 5 years of air rescue experience.

” With each other, we are establishing an extra alternative for person transportation and emergency situation clinical solutions. Present patterns in health care– the decrease and expertise of facilities, longer ranges, and a boosting scarcity of knowledgeable employees– call for brand-new options.

” That is why we are persuaded that the ERC airplane will certainly have a long-term location in our fleet in the 2030s– as a beneficial enhancement to well established air rescue with rescue helicopters.”

ERC’s front runner item will certainly be a crewed, hybrid-electric lift-and-cruise airplane enhanced for inter-hospital person transportation. Established in 2020 by seasoned aerospace specialists, ERC presently has around 60 staff members and is backed by aerospace giant IABG, a leading company of screening and qualification solutions for airplane, spacecraft, and protection options.

The business has actually verified it means to include an uncrewed freight airplane (UAS) to its profile, maximizing its five-year experience of structure and screening hefty uncrewed models. The business is anticipated to launch information of the uncrewed item by Q2 2026.

One Examination each time: ERC’S present trip examination project

ERC System’s third-generation model “Romeo” initial took off in November 2025 at the ERC Trip Examination Facility near Munich, Germany.

The airplane’s first trip noted the begin of the business’s most recent trip examination project, which offers to verify the core trip features of the ERC’s automobile style under depictive mass and system problems. A certain emphasis of the present examination stage is put on upright launch, slow-moving and regulated maneuvers, and upright touchdown

Romeo is the heaviest completely electrical eVTOL flown to day in the European Union, based upon openly offered info. The airplane includes 8 electrically driven upright lift systems powering blades of around 2.4 meters in size, along with a huge cabin agent of ERC’s future clinical transportation arrangement.

It is completely electrical, unlike the hybrid-electric manufacturing airplane readied to get in solution in 2031, as the emphasis of the trip examination project gets on the liftoff and touchdown stages. Both will certainly be carried out in completely electrical setting moving forward

While the future manufacturing airplane will certainly be run with a pilot aboard, the present trip screening is carried out in an uncrewed arrangement. The examination pilot manages the airplane from another location from a ground control terminal. From another location piloted trip screening is a reliable method to raise safety and security and minimize prices in the very early stages of growth and screening.

The present trip examination project will certainly supply important understandings that lead the way for both the technological structure and qualification of the future manned manufacturing airplane

The blog post ERC System begins flight testing its full-size Romeo prototype, one of Europe’s heaviest and largest eVTOL aircraft showed up initially on eVTOL Insights.

The blog post ERC System begins flight testing its full-size Romeo prototype, one of Europe’s heaviest and largest eVTOL aircraft showed up initially on eVTOL Insights.