Colorado-based XTI Aerospace on 13 March began trading as a publicly listed company on the US stock exchange, vowing to commercialise its conceptual “vertical-lift crossover” business aircraft.
The start-up is developing a fixed-wing aircraft called the TriFan 600 that it says will ”provide the point-to-point convenience of a helicopter”.
XTI Aerospace is a combination between XTI Aircraft Company and Inpixon, which first disclosed their intention to tie-up in August. The deal’s value was listed at $70.3 million in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
After closing the deal on 12 March, the company began trading under the ticker “XTIA” on the Nasdaq exchange the following morning.
“We’re thrilled to have successfully combined our companies,” says chief executive Scott Pomeroy. ”XTI Aerospace will be focused on bringing the distinctive TriFan 600 to market., [which] we expect to be able to serve nearly every segment of private air travel – including business, medevac, leisure and cargo.”
XTI Aircraft will continue as a subsidiary of the broader company with Michael Hinderberger still serving as its CEO.
Pomeroy has been named the parent company’s CEO, while Nadir Ali and Wendy Loundermon have resigned as CEO and chief financial officer of the company formerly known as Inpixon.
An entity controlled by Ali has invested $1.5 million in equity financing in XTI Aerospace and acquired 1,500 shares of the company’s stock.
Nevada-based Inpixon offered a “real-time location system” to industrial customers to “create smarter, safer and more secure” indoor environments, according to the company’s website.
XTI claims more than 700 conditional pre-orders of its conceptual aircraft, ”which include conditional aircraft purchase agreements, non-binding reservations, options and expressions of interest”, it says.
The company plans to build its first full-scale piloted test aircraft and launch a flight-test programme in “about two years”, says founder and chairman of XTI Aircraft David Brody.
”We believe this merger provides the company with a solid foundation on which we can accelerate our development of the TriFan 600,” he says.
The crossover aircraft will have an estimated payload capacity of 1,090kg (2,406lb), airspeed of 300kt (556km/h) and a range of about 608nm (1,126km) when taking off and landing vertically, with added range when the aircraft uses runways. It is designed to seat six passengers and one pilot.
Unlike electrical vertical take-off and landing aircraft, the TriFan 600 will be propelled by jet fuel-burning turbine engines, though XTI plans to eventually incorporate hybrid-electric or all-electric propulsion systems as those technologies mature.
The company envisions its aircraft reducing ”door-to-door travel time, while utilising existing infrastructure to take off and land, including over 5,000 existing helipads in the United States alone, as well as driveways, back yards, job sites, private landing pads, remote locations – wherever it’s safe and legal”.
