On November 14-16, Bartini participated in the International Air Show in Bahrain, where its CEO Ilya Khanykov revealed the current progress of the project to the industry experts.

At the moment, the company is ready to showcase its 1:2 scaled prototype of the electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) for the urban air mobility systems. Bartini's concept belongs to a winged eVTOL class and has an unprecedented design: it uses the fuselage as a carrying wing and the "Bartini effect" — 8 engines in pairs are placed in 4 ring cowlings, which increases the efficiency of the propeller and reduces its noise characteristics. The size of the four-seater vehicle is expected to be 5.2 m in length and 4.5 m in width overall. The size of the body without propellers can be compared to that of a Tesla S car.

"We created a unique eVTOL concept, which combines principles of a quadcopter and a flying body. The half-size prototype served as a feasible concept for low-cost urban mobility" — Vladimir Salatov, CTO of Bartini.

How Bartini is expected to work:

1. During take-off and landing the aircraft operates as a common quadcopter: simply by means of the engines' thrust power;

2. After take-off, the engines begin to slowly tilt-shift to vertical position, as a result, growing ground speed enables lift by the aerodynamic shape of the fuselage. As ground speed rises, lift replaces thrust, and this reduces energy consumption required to stay airborne.

3. The device is steered by differing engine thrust or by reactive torque.

"Bartini has several advantages. Cities will find the vehicle with small footprint and low noise easier to adopt. Fleet managers will experience high operational efficiency. We, as passengers, will love the experience of large doors and panoramic views. " — Ilya Khanykov, CEO of Bartini.

The product design upon nearly builds on several years of research into the best use case for eVTOL in an urban environment. Bartini aims to disrupt the way consumers interact with the public transport systems.