BATH, UK – Volant Autonomy a leading UK tech start-up has secured $1m of private investment plus $700k of UK government funding to develop and demonstrate flight autonomy for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and future aviation systems.

• Volant’s patented technolgy will allow the next generation of clean and sustainable aircraft to fly safely without a human pilot.

• Three University of Bath professors, speciaising in aerospace and autonomy teamed up with a commercial jet and ex-RAF pilot to make this cutting edge technology a reality.

• The Volant team have been trialling their detect-and-avoid technology with experienced test pilots in helicopters flying with closing speeds of over 400km/h.

• Volant could provide the flight guidance technology for fleets of autonomous aircraft across sophistciated logistical networks.

The latest investment round was led by 7PC Ventures, a Trans-Atlantic, deep tech specialist fund, and complemented by Creator Fund a university spin-out specialist. It enables the company to accelerate the development of their patented approach to autonomous flight in close collaboration with a range of major aerospace manufacturers.

The widespread adoption of the next generation of sustainable aircraft will be realised through the development of safe, certifiable and reliable autonomous flight. Volant Autonomy are pioneering the advancement of this technology that will exceed the capability of onboard or remote human pilots. Marc Allen, Chief Strategy Officer of Boeing recently commented that:

“Autonomy is the key to unlocking scale across all AAM applications, from passenger to cargo and beyond.”

Co-founder and Boeing 777 Captain, Anthony Lawrenson says, “Our current airspace system has evolved to be reliant on humans-in-the-loop. If we are going to replace the human, it’s crucial that we are adopting technology that replicates the human contribution to flight safety. Seeing autonomous aircraft with Volant technology producing the same behaviour as you would expect from a piloted platform demonstrates that we can replicate then ultimately enhance the current safety performance levels of piloted aviation”.

The company was founded following a Department for Transport project that brought together the three academic co-founders, Drs David Cleaver, Jonathan du Bois, and Pejman Iravani, with a very experienced military and commercial pilot, Captain Anthony Lawrenson. The team immediately hit it off, achieving a lot in a small space of time and have abandoned their academic careers to pursue the vision of autonomous flight as full-time directors of the Volant team.

About Volant:

Founded in 2019, Volant is developing Deterministic Agile Risk Intelligence (DARI) as the basis for autonomous flight. We have two current government funded projects with partners including GKN Aerospace, CallenLenz and Claytex Services to develop and flight demonstrate DARI. Volant is leading the way in intelligent autonomy, a key enabler for expansion in both the drone and air taxi sectors. 

Find out more: volantautonomy.com