US-based vertiport developer Volatus Infrastructure has signed an agreement with Bellefonte airport in Pennsylvania to build a public use, FAA-compliant eVTOL vertiport with up to eight landing pads, including a charging station at each pad. The vertiport is expected to be operational later this year.

Volatus has a modular designed vertiport that allows for quick on-site construction as well as scalable growth to expand with the advanced air mobility (AAM) industry as it grows. Bellefonte airport will initially have the vertiport and a single landing pad with a charging station, that it can scale up to eight landing pads with charging stations as the need for additional space grows.

“A project that started out as a way to get fans to Penn State games without sitting in traffic on US 80 and State Route 322, has turned into what will become the centre of an eVTOL ecosystem for the east coast,” says Volatus co-founder Grant Fisk. “We realised that Bellefonte airport is within 90 miles of all the major cities so it just makes sense to expand this location, and this will lay the foundation for the eVTOL infrastructure ecosystem for the east coast.”

“The Bellefonte airport was used as one of the first airmail stops at the inception of the airmail ecosystem,” adds airport manager John Elnitski. “It is fitting that it will again meet this role for eVTOL use.”

The Bellefonte airport is a public-use airport located in the centre of Pennsylvania in Centre County. It is owned and operated by Marina Elnitski, who has been involved with aviation since the late 1970s, under the name Pleasant Valley Aviation.

Founded in 2021, Volatus Infrastructure is connecting communities to the future with best-in-class eVTOL infrastructure technology. It offers three main eVTOL infrastructure designs, a vehicle agnostic charging station, plus an app and maintenance programmes.