The personal air vehicle was designed and produced by Volocopter GmbH of Bruchsal, and first introduced at the AERO Friedrichshafen airshow in 2017.

[1] The two-seat project started in 2013, evolved from early single-seat Volocopter VC2 prototype flown in 2011.

[3][4] An initial on-line fundraising effort in 2013 on Seedmatch raised €500,000 in 2 hours and 35 minutes, setting a new European Union record.

[5] The company received investments of €25M in 2017 to bring the design to production, including from Daimler AG.

[6][7] A contract for serial production was placed with German sailplane manufacturer DG Flugzeugbau in April 2018.

[6] The aircraft was designed to comply with the European Class 6 microlight helicopter rules and be employed in air taxi service in urban areas.

The controls operate through a mesh polymer fibre optic network fly-by-light system.

[16] The design was employed in Dubai in 2017, conducting uncrewed tests of a proposed air taxi service.

[17][18] A short uncrewed indoor demonstration flight was conducted at the US Consumer Electronics Show in January 2018.