Why hybrid
Different by design.
A decade of battery air-taxi programs proved that the physics does not negotiate. Zuri chose the regional mission first, and the mission chose the powertrain.
How it works
One generator, distributed motors.
It is a series hybrid: the engine drives a generator, never a rotor. The electricity runs the motors, and the battery covers the peaks.
The series-hybrid powertrain
Fuel to generator, generator to motors, battery on the bus for the peaks.
Watch the tour fly, or take the controls.
Fuel and a battery are two stores of energy, which is redundancy. If the generator stops, the battery's reserve lands the aircraft; a battery-only design draws that reserve from the store it flies on.
The energy
Five times the energy. Today.
The figure is not a projection: an 85-kilogram hybrid powertrain producing 210 kWh over three hours from 55 kilograms of fuel, built from certified-grade components. Batteryspecific energy improves a few percent a year; at current rates, closing a gap of this magnitude would take decades.
¹ System-level equivalent: energy delivered to the propulsion bus per kilogram of generator plus fuel.
Usable range
The range that remains after the rules.
Every aircraft lands with a mandatory energy reserve: typically 30 minutes of flight, 45 for some operations. Count it, and advertised range shrinks to what a mission can actually use. That is not a footnote; it is the difference between a demo route and a business.
Zuri uncrewed cargo VTOL
A representative battery eVTOL²
² Internal engineering analysis vs a representative battery eVTOL class, standard conditions; the comparison crosses categories.
See these ranges on real missions →The battery
Small battery, big consequences.
The cells, split between the wings, only buffer the power peaks of takeoff, transition and landing, and hold the emergency reserve; the generator does the sustained work. That makes the pack several times smaller than a battery eVTOL's 200 to 300 kWh, smaller even than an electric car's 75 to 100.
Smaller means lighter, less costly, easier to cool, and slower to age; and because a battery weighs the same full or empty, fuel is what lets payload trade against range.
Filmed in the Prague workshop, with captions.
Infrastructure
Any fuel station is the infrastructure.
The aircraft runs on AVGAS, regular automotive gasoline, or bioethanol, whichever is closest. Refuel in minutes at an airfield, on a deck, or from a fuel cache. No chargers, no grid upgrades, nothing to build before you fly.
A refuel in minutes.
Sustainability
The lifecycle math.
Hybrid's emissions case is what it does not consume.
A far smaller battery
Several times fewer cells to manufacture, cool, and recycle over the aircraft's life than a battery eVTOL carries.
One cycle per flight
Hundreds of kilometers on that one cycle, where a multicopter manages about 16 before it charges again, so the pack is replaced far less often.
Sustainable fuel, today
Bioethanol lowers emissions today and is already sustainable. The operator chooses it, AVGAS, or automotive gasoline, and the powertrain runs on any of them.
Frequently asked questions
About hybrid power.
What is a hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft?
An aircraft that takes off and lands vertically on electric motors, with the electricity made on board by a fuel-driven generator instead of stored in heavy batteries. A small battery buffers takeoff and landing; liquid fuel carries the mission energy. The result is helicopter access with fixed-wing range.
How is a hybrid VTOL different from an eVTOL?
A battery eVTOL carries all of its energy in cells, and the best aviation batteries store 230 to 280 Wh/kg. Zuri's fuel-plus-generator system delivers the equivalent of about 1,500 Wh/kg on board, roughly five times more. That is why the design range is 679 km, 569 km with a full 30-minute reserve, where a comparable battery eVTOL keeps roughly 100 usable kilometers.
How does a series-hybrid powertrain work?
Fuel spins a generator that makes electricity in flight. The electricity drives distributed electric motors through independent controllers, and cells in each wing buffer the power peaks of takeoff, transition, and landing while holding an emergency reserve. If the generator stops, the battery's reserve keeps the aircraft flying to a landing.
What fuel does it run on?
AVGAS, regular automotive gasoline, or bioethanol, whichever is locally available; refueling takes minutes at any airfield, deck, or fuel cache. The certified passenger aircraft that follows is designed for sustainable aviation fuel.
Why not simply wait for better batteries?
Battery specific energy improves a few percent a year; at current rates, closing a five-times gap would take decades rather than product cycles. Missions that need hundreds of kilometers with a hundred-plus kilograms aboard need liquid fuel today, and a hybrid airframe can adopt better cells whenever they arrive.
Is a hybrid more sustainable than a battery eVTOL?
The honest case is lifecycle: a battery several times smaller means fewer cells to manufacture and recycle, long flights cycle it once per flight rather than once per hour, and the fuel can be bioethanol, which is sustainable today.
The physics decided.
Hybrid stopped being our differentiator the day the industry agreed with us. It remains our head start.