Davenport, Iowa-based speciality industrial real estate developer DIFCO has started construction on an eVTOL vertiport facility in Rock Island, Illinois. Officially named the Corporal Jason G Pautsch vertiport, the site is located centrally within the four Quad Cities metropolitan area and will include corporate hangar facilities for lease, refuelling services, an executive pilot lounge, prototype visual navigational aid beacon, and an area navigation (RNAV) instrumentation approach and departure egress. DIFCO partnered with Texan third party air navigation services provider Hughes Aerospace and Fort Wayne, Indiana-based vertical lift consultancy Five Alpha on the development in early 2021.

The project will help familiarise the community with eVTOL and VTOL, and the future resources available to them, by anchoring a significant hospital's aero-medical aviation division to the site.

DIFCO CEO Jake Pautsche says: "We are excited to be pioneering with our team. The vertiport will supply QC metro medical patients with safer and faster high-end access to aero-medical transport. In addition to supporting traditional rotorcraft, the state-of-the-art facility will support the rising, electric battery-powered eVTOL aircraft.

"Numerous, one-of-a-kind components of the project are unheard of in this industry and will increase safety. In addition, use of advanced technology will manage the power production demands that eVTOL aircraft require without drawing from traditional energy grid power. Evaluating the massive power demands of electric aircraft is a moral responsibility. We have integrated components to be renewably conscience."