Plana, a South Korean developer of a hybrid advanced air mobility (AAM) eVTOL, is joining forces with OneSky, a provider of uncrewed aircraft systems traffic management (UTM) solutions.

Plana signed the business agreement with OneSky at its Incheon R&D centre. The business agreement ceremony was attended by key officials from both companies, including Plana CSO and co-founder Minyoung Ahn and OneSky CEO Robert Hammett. Through this business agreement, Plana will participate in OneSky's Future of Flight programme, a cooperative ecosystem of industry leaders and innovators that allows partners to come together to shorten the time it takes to get to scalable operations. Currently, more than 20 companies are participating in the programme, including vertiport developers Skyports and Volatus Infrastructure, as well as Echodyne, a radar developer, and Supernal, Hyundai's UAM US subsidiary.

The two companies plan to create synergies by combining OneSky's airspace situational awareness, flight planning and simulation UTM/UATM solutions with Plana's expertise in developing and manufacturing hybrid-eVTOL aircraft. In addition, they plan to verify the operational concept of Plana's CP-01 aircraft under development, refine the technical roadmap by coordinating technical requirements, explore solutions to AAM industry regulations in various countries and discover business models.

Robert Hammett, OneSky CEO, says: “Through this agreement, OneSky has secured an important partner in the operating of AAM aircraft. We will contribute to the evolving AAM industry by implementing safe aircraft operation through sharing know-how and cooperation between the two companies.”

Minyoung Ahn, Plana CSO and co-founder, adds: “For safe and efficient aviation of AAM aircraft, it is necessary to utilise UTM functions for automation and long-term processes including VFR. We expect to be able to acquire various technologies and know-how related to AAM aircraft operation through this cooperation.”

In July, Moviation, a pioneering company set to launch South Korea's first VTOL urban air mobility (UAM) platform service under the Vonaer brand, also entered into an agreement with OneSky, which lays the foundation for essential business operations such as route planning and airspace data accumulation, pivotal for the development of future-urban air corridors that will facilitate high-speed travel for upcoming eVTOL aircraft. Both companies anticipate that the value of the UAM market will exceed $1.1 trillion by 2040.