“Our SkyBus is an ideal proposition for the connection between Twente Airport in the Netherlands and several European urban regions within a 1,000 km radius”, highlighted LYTE Aviation Founder and CEO Freshta Farzam. “It will provide a convenient, affordable, sustainable, and much faster transportation option for employees traveling regularly between sites: It will connect the Twente region with Paris, Birmingham, Munich or Hamburg, allowing Twente based corporations to reach their respective HQs, European counterparts and co-workers in under 2 hours, rather than up to 8 hours total travel time today (including car / train / bus / taxi travel time to and from international airport). This way, we are disrupting even business aviation, as we are the only ones able to carry up to 40 employees vertically in one SkyBus only. And, we don’t need any runways; we just need a take-off and landing pad of approx. 40m x 40m max. With all the surrounding corporates in the area, such as Thales, Sensata Technologies, Malvern PANAlytical and VDL, Twente Airport is ideally positioned for our pilot project. We chose to design an alternative to the normal regional air route by laying two new efficient connecting points between the Dutch regional Twente airport and a new vertiport right at the doorstep of a corporate! We are bringing the future right to your doorstep! ” Freshta added.
LYTE Aviation is pioneering the industry’s first 40-seat eVTOL, a heavyweight passenger mass transit vertical take-off and landing aircraft branded the SkyBus LA-44. It is also designing a cargo variant, SkyTruck LA-44C, offering a payload capacity of 4.5 tons.
The aircraft is being designed to be five times more fuel efficient than a helicopter, 10 times less noise polluting than a helicopter, with considerably fewer MRO costs. With its tandem tilt-wing technology, power will come from hybrid-hydrogen-electric turboprops and electric engines. “The SkyBus is an ideal solution to extend current regional aviation solutions in the near future for passenger mass and cargo transit,” added Freshta.
Owing to the use of proven and existing technologies available today, LYTE Aviation is estimating entering the market within five to six years.
UK-based LYTE Aviation is pleased to have entered a partnership with Twente Airport, a Dutch airport approx. 175km away from Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, dedicated to advocating and pioneering sustainable aviation at their facilities with groundbreaking renewable technologies.
Twente Airport seeks to accelerate access to these new technologies by boldly embracing the opportunities of Regional Air Mobility and opening up achievable and realistic pathways. The airport offers space and facilities to new and established sustainable aviation companies that are looking to test aircraft, systems and procedures. Twente Airport is a living lab for sustainable aviation and new forms of mobility.
“Our core values are creating solutions which benefit our overall environment (climate, humanity, and economy) in the most feasible and strategic ways. The mindset and values of Twente Airport’s leadership team are as open as the horizon with an eagerness to connect new dots and “redefine” regional aviation with us. Therefore, we decided to start this research project with the Twente Airport team; it’s a perfect match. The work they do is highly valued” said Freshta Farzam.
Jan Schuring, CEO of Twente Airport added “The aviation industry is going through a number of revolutions that will fundamentally change how we will travel in the future. Our facilities are available as a testing ground for the innovations of the next generation of aircraft, systems and procedures. LYTE Aviation is a perfect example of a company that is looking to disrupt the status quo; we’re keen to assist them in this endeavor”
