Korea Aerospace Industries plans to commercialise an advanced air mobility vehicle (AAV) in 2031, following design completion next year.
The company made the announcement as part of its participation in South Korea’s Future Mobility Expo event.
The company has a 1:4 scale demonstrator of an AAV that is intended for flight control verification purposes, as well as a model of a prospective AAV that can serve both civilian and military missions.
The models closely resemble ones that KAI has displayed at previous shows, including October 2023’s Seoul ADEX event.
The demonstrator vehicle has four wing-mounted electric motors that swivel upwards to provide vertical lift, and then swing down to provide forward propulsion. Two pairs of electrical motors mounted on booms extending from the two inboard main engines are intended to supplement vertical lift.
A similar vehicle depicted in an all-black colour scheme features the same rotor layout. Instead of the commercial vehicle’s V-tail, it has vertical stabilizers rising from twin booms, with a horizontal stabilizer extended between them.
KAI has already invested W55.3 billion ($40.1 million) in the first stage development of the AAV, with a total planned investment of W150 billion. This will lead to design completion in 2025.
The second phase will see the development of a demonstrator by 2028. After commercialisation in 2031, KAI hopes to sell 23,000 units by 2050.
KAI has long been interested in the burgeoning AAM sector. In February 2023 it signed the pact with the government of South Korea’s Gyeongsangnam-do province, which lies to the west of Busan, and the city of Jinju-Si to set up an AAM research facility.
In an update, KAI says the facility will be ready by March 2025.
‘AAV is a collection of cutting-edge technologies that encompass the fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and civil aircraft know-how that KAI has accumulated so far,” says KAI president Kang Gu-young.
“It will shift the paradigm of future transportation while taking care of transportation and the environment and will be reborn as a key means of transportation on future battlefields.”
