Swedish design technology company STILFOLD has launched STILPOD – “the world’s first software-defined vertiport” according to a company press release.
“Folded from recycled aluminum, shipped flat in a single standard container, and operational in hours rather than months, STILPOD cuts the embodied carbon of conventional concrete vertiports by 81 percent and leaves zero permanent footprint when uninstalled,” reports the company. “After three years of validated development with RISE and Advanced Air Mobility under Sweden’s Vinnova iPOD program, STILFOLD is now opening the technology for global commercial deployment.
Until now, landing platforms for drone traffic have been expensive and time-consuming construction projects characterized by cast-in-place concrete, heavy excavated masses, and millions in costs, said STILFOLD. The recently completed Swedish innovation project STILPOD (Vinnlva project iPOD – Industrial Origami for Drone Ports) the company reports it has validated a unique, modular landing platform. Instead of months of groundworks, the new vertiport is folded and assembled in just a few hours at a fraction of the cost. In connection with the project’s completion, STILFOLD is now entering into a commercial launch to roll out the technology globally.
The same platform addresses adjacent demand profiles: humanitarian logistics, disaster response, expeditionary military aviation, and temporary installations where permanent construction is not viable.
STILPOD is the commercial result of iPOD (Industrial Origami for Drone Ports), a three-year experimental development program funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s national innovation agency. The consortium brought together STILFOLD’s patented curved-folding manufacturing platform, the engineering and certification expertise of RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden), and the operational and regulatory insight of Advanced Air Mobility. The program delivered structural validation, operational field testing, and a deployment-ready system designed against the certification pathways now being finalized by EASA and the FAA.
For more information
https://news.cision.com/stilfold-ab/r/swedish-origami-technique-turns-drone-airports-into-flat-packs—meet-stilpod–innovative-ikea-inspi,c4352451
(Image: STILFOLD)