Tensor AG from Genderkingen, Bavaria, will present its newly developed gyroplane TENSOR 600X at AERO 2023. With the current painting of the machine, the company signals its commitment to CO2-neutral eFuels in general aviation.

The TENSOR gyroplane with its revolutionary new rotor blade design opens up a completely new market segment in the aviation industry between helicopters and planarplanes. The TENSOR gyroplane will win customers where extremely short take-off and landing characteristics (XSTOL) are required at the lowest operating costs. The starting run is just 86 meters (ISO conditions, sea level, calm and MTOW ≠ Maximum Takeoff Weight). The landing distance is only around 15 meters under the same conditions, which corresponds approximately to the diameter of a helipad. Due to its wide speed band from 30 kts (VSO ≠ Maximum Normal Operation Speed) to a maximum of 130 kts (VNE ≠ Never Exceed Speed) and the principled, permanent autorotation, the TENSOR Gyroplanes are also among the safest and most flexible aircraft ever.

With the first commercial gyroplane, the TENSOR 600X, the Tensor AG team has now created a new type of aircraft that can be used to transport people and goods efficiently, safely and environmentally friendly to the most remote regions. Further applications can be found in the field of professional earth, border and traffic observation.

The Gyroplane from Tensor is designed in such a way that different drive concepts can be integrated. The aim is to power the machine with synthetic fuel as soon as possible and thus fly CO2-neutrally. Tensor AG is a partner of the federally funded research project "DeCarTrans" (Demonstrating a Circular Carbon Economy in Transport Along the Value Chain) and represents the aviation segment in the eFuels project.

The goal of the DeCarTrans project is the joint development of climate-neutral fuels for the mobility of tomorrow. Project partners are the Lother Group, Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz, FEV Europe GmbH, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg and Coryton Advanced Fuels Germany. In addition to Tensor AG, representatives of the automotive and mineral oil industries are involved as associated partners.

"From our point of view, eFuels are currently the right and only functioning climate-friendly solution for general aviation," says Hubertus von Janecek, CEO of Tensor AG. "The battery development is not up to date today and in the near future in order to make electric flying over longer distances suitable for everyday use and commercially meaningful. This is also shown by our calculations. With our commitment to eFuels, we want to do pioneering work for sustainable flying."

Tensor AG expects the project to take a big step towards the market launch of synthetic fuel together with the partners. It is produced from biomethanol using the methanol-to-gasoline process (MtG).

The TENSOR 600X presented at the AERO is currently in the final phase of approval in Germany as an Ultralight (UL) and is to be delivered to customers from spring next year. The next planned step is the EASA approval of the 600 series with up to 800 kilograms of MTOW for commercial use.