Source | PAL-V

Personal Air Landing Vehicle (PAL-V, Raamdonksveer, Netherlands), a company developing the Liberty flying car, and owner of Breda International Airport Forum Group BV (Noord Brabant) have signed an LOI to establish an assembly and delivery center for the PAL-V. Forum Group is aiming to develop the airport into a mobility innovation hub.

Seating two people, the Liberty is a combination between a car and gyroplane. Its fabrication involves many carbon fiber-reinforced components to “keep the vehicle as light as possible,” including the cabin and body panels. The propeller and rotors are also composite, though not carbon fiber. Liberty earned certification from the EASA in 2021. In 2019, PAL-V announced that GKN Fokker (Hoogeveen) was to advise the platform’s design, certification, engineering and manufacturing of its products

Breda International Airport will reportedly become the first European airport to host a dedicated assembly and delivery center for the gyroplane. This strategic collaboration will support the roll-out of the PAL-V FlyDrive vehicles as it approaches air certification and commercial availability. The new facility will serve as a hub for final assembly, customer demonstrations, flight training and pre-delivery inspections, playing a pivotal role in PAL-V’s global operations.

To support PAL-V’s production start-up, global expansion and the imminent delivery of the Liberty, PAL-V is completing a funding package that includes international strategic investors as well as a last wave of Dutch private investors.

Currently, Breda International Airport is home to the PAL-V FlyDrive Academy where PAL-V customers have been trained since 2019 for their flight license to use their PAL-V Liberty FlyDrive vehicle. The majority of reservations have been made for professional use like first responders, NGOs and governmental use like policing and border control. 

Next to flight training, PAL-V will use Breda Airport as a testing location for the further development of the Liberty platform, which the company says has a roadmap will innovations in clean tech drivetrains and other emerging technologies.