COST-BASED AND HEADS-DOWN ENGINEERING

Based on previous experience in developing large eVTOLs, the founding team of ERC was poised to build a winning electric aviation company that can benefit from being a second mover. From the beginning, our journey at ERC has been supported by a group of industry-leading partners: the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the DRF Luftrettung, and the iABG. We together with these pioneers in their respective fields came together with a shared vision, specifically to solve the pressing cost-time dilemma between traditional helicopter services and ground-based transportation. ERC collaboration with these partners set the stage for the development and building of our innovative Vertical Take-Off and Landing platform.

In 2021, ERC expanded its team with the first key hires, filling essential roles to support the growing complexity of the project. This year also marked the beginning of our creation phase, during which the foundations of our aviation platform was defined. At the same time, we began building our supplier network, initiating outreach to strategic partners who would later become crucial to our development. 2022 brought the first real-world validation of our ideas with the launch of the ground testing campaign for our full-scale, full-mass demonstrator, Echo.

After years of intensive development, analysis, and testing, ERC reached a major milestone with the successful vertical take off of Echo, one of Europe’s heaviest full-mass demonstrators with a mass of 2,730 kilograms. This achievement represented a key moment in our progress, significantly reducing technological risk in the development program and validating the depth and precision of our engineering work.

2024 marked the year where ERC revealed Romeo, our second full-scale-full-mass demonstrator generation. With this aircraft, we aim to achieve a successful flight in 2025 and advance to the next stage of our development program.