Manta Aircraft is an Italian start-up and a high-tech engineering and design company engaged in the development of multi-purpose aerial platforms and different models of hybrid-electric eV/STOL vehicles for advanced air mobility.The company’s innovative and flexible mission in the near future is focused on high-performance high energy-efficient products tailored to customers’ specifications for a wide range of applications and inter-regional operations.

Manta Aircraft is developing rapidly in the last few months.

Manta Aircraft has moved to its new office in Sesto Calende, Varese/Italy in beautiful Lombardy, Europe's heart of vertical flight, in 2021. This is associated with the onboarding of some highly specialized collaborators from the Leonardo Company.

The main model in development is the 2-seat model “ANN2”. A winged solutionfeaturingeight electric ducted fans and measures just more than 28 ft in length, with a 22 ft wingspan. It needs very limited ground infrastructure and thus can be operated with short ground time and high availability.

It's unique hybrid propulsion allows higher performance in terms of longer endurance and range (recharging batteries enroute) and is fed with gas or eco-fuel. The airplane-like airframe allows higher speed, climb performance and exceptional maneuvering capabilities in safer flying conditions. In the course of development Manta Aircraft creates new advanced technologies in propulsion, energy management, avionics and human-machine interface. It can travel more than 300km–800km (depending on operation mode) with a maximum cruise speed of 300km/h.

These new type of air vehicle are designed for personal mobility with wide regional range. This makes this family of air vehicles particularly interesting for private individuals or companies who want to travel quickly to their destination (opportunity of point-to-point connection) or reach hard-to-reach or traffic jammed areas. The air vehicle is equipped with a full electric control system and easy-to-use human machine interface (HMI) which makes it easy to fly.

Another use is for institutions which might need the aircraft to increase the efficiency of special operations: For example, rapid intervention in the case of medical emergencies or natural disasters, emergency services such as the police or firefighting service, which might use it when tackling forest fires or searching missions for exampleas well as for patrolling or surveillance of a territory. For example, in the Alps there are many hydroelectric power stations and if there is an issue you have to get there quickly. This aircraft can be used by a technician to fly there and land easily.

Or any other special operations where speed,range, low infrastructure needs and low overall costs can have a significant positive impactand at much lower costs. The total cost of ownership for theseair vehicles is forecasted to be one-tenth of a comparable helicopter which flies at the same speedand has the same range.

Manta Aircraft is developing rapidly in the last few months.

Manta Aircraft have frozen the design of the ANN2, the first version of the ANN platform, according to ourmilestone plan. It has performed advanced wind tunnel tests, with rotary balance and forced oscillations for a very large angle of attack range, in June. The wind tunnel data are matched with the CFD data gathered in 1 year of non-stop work of the cluster, resulting is a highly populated aerodynamic database for the engineering flight simulator (today called digital twin).

In the coming months, further flights are planned with the first 1:3 scale model of ANN2, while the second one, with enhanced capabilities, is in the assembly phase.

Manta Aircraft plan to assemble the first full-scale prototype at the beginning of 2023.

In parallel, the team is also working on the preliminary design of the larger ANN4+ model with significantly more seats and space for luggage, or cargo.

In the last six months, Manta Aircraft has also started the preparatory work for the upcoming certification path, interacting with the Italian Civil Aviation Authority, that it expects to start in 2023.

Moreover, the project has been joined by other core people and top aerospace managers like Giuseppe Orsi - already in 2020 - and now Fabio Nannonion the technical side as well as Alberto Recchi regarding strategic financials. They stated to have great confidence in the team and also see great potential in the advanced HeV/STOL solution.

In parallel, more companies, strategic for the technical development and the adoption, are joining the Manta Group, our name for the ecosystem around Manta, and collaboration agreements are set in place with stakeholders at large for the AAM environment, that are needed to really start the AAM system. The industry partners are now focused on technical development, where we are working also to bring to aviation some emerging technologies from other industries. It will add further deployment and implementation partners from infrastructure, air traffic control and air traffic management,and operators.