Pantuo Aviation and studiokurbos have been announced as winners of the prestigious iF Design Award 2023 for their Pantala Concept H in the discipline Professional Concept, in the category Product Concepts.

The Pantala Concept H stood out among almost 11,000 entries from 56 countries, impressing the 133-member jury of independent experts with its configuration. By tilting the ducted fan wings, this eVTOL allows take-offs and landings in confined urban spaces.

Few ducted fan configurations are seen in eVTOL design, not to mention a tilt-wing ducted fan configuration, which makes it the first in civil aviation. This provides safety and low operating noise to both passengers and their surroundings. At the same time, the advanced aerodynamics shape allows it to fly faster and further as battery technology evolves.

Pantala Concept H was released in September 2021 when Pantuo Aviation was developing its half-scale technology T1 demonstrator. In June 2022, the company shared a video of T1’s first flight.

T1 key technologies, such as battery pack design, flight control system and scalable ducted fan wing were developed in-house. The success of T1 not only verifies the feasibility of this configuration, but also proves the team’s development capability.

The scaled-down technology demonstrator provides an opportunity for the team to push the boundaries of technology with a fraction of the development budget, having successfully overcome countless obstacles and challenges.

This project has allowed them to gain a comprehensive understanding of requirement generation, validation, and verification, laying the groundwork for expediting the certification process in the future.

“Pantala Concept H is a disruptively innovative transportation tool to revolutionise the way people travel. With industrial ecosystem support and government involvement, we are determined to bring the future of mobility to life,” said Pantuo Aviation founder and CEO Zhang.

As the world’s oldest independent design organisation, Hannover-based iF International Forum Design GmbH has been organising the iF Design Award for years, making this win a significant accomplishment for Pantuo Aviation and studiokurbos GmbH.

Last month, Plana announced that it won the Professional Concept category of the iF Design Awards held annually in Germany and considered one of the top three Design Awards globally, alongside the Red Dot Design Award and IDEA.