Helicopter sales and support company Heliflite will be the distributor for the XTI Trifan 600 VTOL aircraft in Indonesia, Oceania and the Philippines.
Denver, Colorado-based XTI Aircraft Company, which is behind the in-development Trifan 600, announced the partnership with Heliflite on Tuesday (US time).
As part of the exclusive sales and services agreement, Heliflite will also offer maintenance and engineering support for the aircraft.
XTI Aircraft chief executive Robert LaBelle said he was pleased to be working with Heliflite on an exclusive basis in this part of the world.
“They’ve been providing sales, service and spare parts support to the helicopter industry and other aircraft owners since 1977, and have earned an excellent reputation,” LaBelle said in a statement.
Launched in 2013, The Trifan 600 is a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft flown by a single pilot and able to seat up to five passengers.
According to the XTI Aircraft website, the aircraft was designed to have a maximum cruise speed of 300kts, a maximum cruise altitude of 29,000ft and a range of up to 1,200nm.
The aircraft has three ducted fans, two on the wing and one at the rear to provide the vertical lift. Meanwhile, the aircraft gets its propulsion from a hybrid electric drive system that includes a Honeywell HTS900 turboshaft.
A 65 per cent scale model was completed in late 2018.
So far in 2019, XTI Aircraft has conducted ground test of the prototype to validate the electric motors, the battery system, ducts, propellers, flight controls, electrical systems and instrumentation.
Earlier in May, XTI Aircraft said the prototype had successfully completed initial hover tests on a short tether at an airport in Northern California.
“Future flights at a certified UAV test facility will be untethered in hover and will also test forward, wing-borne flight, as well as the transition phase between vertical and forward-flight modes,” XTI Aircraft said on May 8.
XTI Aircraft said it has early reservations for 78 Trifan 600s from customers around the world, representing “almost one-half billion dollars in future gross revenues”.
The full scale prototype was expected to fly in the second half of calendar 2020.
“Heliflite is looking to the future, anticipating the next big thing in air travel, which has led us to proudly establish this relationship with XTI’s highly experienced design and management team,” Heliflite director Scott Edmonds said.
“Heliflite looks very much forward to being instrumental in the Trifan 600’s success in our region.”
VIDEO: A look at the Trifan 600’s first hover from the XTI Aircraft YouTube channel.
