Hanneke Weitering is a writer and editor with AIN covering advanced air mobility and new flight technologies. She became an aviation journalist and joined the AIN team in the summer of 2022 after reporting on spaceflight and astronomy for six years at Space.com. After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she moved to New York City to pursue a master’s degree in science, health, and environmental reporting at New York University&#039;s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She is now based in Seattle near Boeing Field and spends her free time exploring nature in the Pacific Northwest.

Science & Technology Editor

Hanneke Weitering

XTI Aerospace has all but abandoned its plans to bring the TriFan 600 ducted-fan VTOL aircraft to market. After more than a decade of research and development work on the six-passenger business aircraft, the company has shelved the TriFan program and shifted its focus toward drones.
Speaking with investors during a town hall in early February, XTI chairman and CEO Scott Pomeroy confirmed that the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2025-08-18/xti-touts-progress-trifan-600-vtol-aircraft">TriFan 600</a>—the company’s flagship product—has been defunded and deprioritized amid “a strategic evaluation of the business.”&nbsp;
“It is effectively being put on a diet, a significant cost diet…while we go through that evaluation process,” Pomeroy said. In the meantime, XTI intends to retain and preserve all intellectual property related to the TriFan 600 program.&nbsp;
XTI’s decision to pause work on the TriFan 600 came shortly after it acquired Drone Nerds and Anzu Robotics in November, following a broader restructuring that included divesting the Inpixon software business after the 2023 merger that took XTI public.&nbsp;Launched in 2013, the TriFan program has yet to build or flight-test a full-scale prototype, making little progress in the company's ambitions to offer an alternative to existing business jets and helicopters.
The TriFan program review “is really about ensuring we can find a way to align the development of that business with the appropriate capital structure that it has,” Pomeroy explained. “So, we'll look at a number of different alternatives with the business, and when we're comfortable and confident as to what the direction is, we'll have more to say about that.”&nbsp;
Pomeroy suggested that XTI’s new drone business could provide the revenue stream the company needs to proceed with the TriFan program at some point in the future. “To the extent we're successful with drones, we create a strong revenue stream and a profitability stream to look at other opportunities within the portfolio,” he said. “That's what we're focused on, is looking to be able to fund some of these opportunities out of our current operations without having to go to the market for working capital.”

News and issues relating to civil and military unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) of all kinds and sizes, including those used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), combat (unmanned combat air vehicles, or UCAVs), law enforcement, research and other applications. Of particular focus is the FAA's planned integration of UAS into the U.S. national airspace system.

XTI Aerospace Shelves TriFan 600 VTOL Business Aircraft Program

Colorado-based business aircraft developer pivots to drones

XTI Aerospace has effectively paused development of its TriFan 600 ducted-fan VTOL aircraft as it shifts focus toward newly acquired drone businesses.

XTI Aerospace Shelves TriFan 600 VTOL Aircraft

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

David Donald

Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

In 2028 Australia will become the first country with an operational collaborative combat aircraft capability

Full Speed Ahead for Collaborative Combat Ghost Bat

Korea Aerospace Industries displaying models of two CCA designs at Singapore Airshow

Korean Collaborative Combat Aircraft Make International Debut

Charlotte Bailey

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Company’s largest autonomous cargo carrier to date is expecting certification in two years 

ST Engineering Debuts New Medium-lift UAS

Flexrotor, Sirtap, and Aliaca join conventional crewed platforms on display 

Airbus Drones Make Singapore Airshow Debut 

New developments and products in avionics, specifically about aircraft electronics in the cockpit.

Autonomous flight and counter-drone systems on display at the Singapore Airshow

Honeywell Eyes Expanding APAC Defense Market

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

In this article

XTI Aerospace

More In Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Full Speed Ahead for Collaborative Combat Ghost Bat

In 2028 Australia will become the first country with an operational collaborative combat aircraft capability

Korean Collaborative Combat Aircraft Make International Debut

Korea Aerospace Industries displaying models of two CCA designs at Singapore Airshow

ST Engineering Debuts New Medium-lift UAS

Company’s largest autonomous cargo carrier to date is expecting certification in two years

Airbus Drones Make Singapore Airshow Debut

Flexrotor, Sirtap, and Aliaca join conventional crewed platforms on display

Honeywell Eyes Expanding APAC Defense Market

Autonomous flight and counter-drone systems on display at the Singapore Airshow

Lowental To Provide Hybrid Propulsion for Elbit UAVs

Company developed hybrid internal combustion/electric propulsion for uncrewed aerial vehicles

Ondas Unifies Autonomous Combat Systems under New Unit

Division intended to eliminate siloed defense systems

NOAA Turns to ‘Meteodrones’ to Close Weather Data Gap

Meteomatics’ drones will support U.S. National Weather Service forecasting

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN