Modular Actuation System for eVTOL Platforms

Liebherr-Aerospace will exhibit at The eVTOL Show Europe in Stuttgart, Germany, on February 12, 2026, where it will present its Liebherr Versatile Control and Actuation System (LiVCAS). The system is designed as a modular, certifiable platform tailored to the technical and regulatory requirements of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft within the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector.

Modular Architecture for Flight-Critical Functions
LiVCAS is developed as a plug-and-play solution comprising defined modules for control and actuation. The architecture is modular and scalable, allowing adaptation to different aircraft sizes, mission profiles, and redundancy concepts. The approach is intended to reduce integration complexity and support accelerated certification processes, which are central challenges in the AAM market.

The system forms part of Liebherr’s broader more-electric portfolio, which replaces conventional hydraulic actuation systems with electromechanical actuators (EMAs). Electrification eliminates hydraulic lines, pumps, and fluids, reducing system weight and maintenance requirements while improving energy efficiency and integration flexibility. In eVTOL aircraft, where power-to-weight ratio and packaging constraints are critical, electrically driven architectures support compact installation and distributed system layouts.

Electromechanical Actuators for AAM
At the conference, Joachim Bihr, Chief Engineer at Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg, will discuss the development of flight-critical actuation systems for the AAM market. The presentation will address how modular EMA architectures are adapted to meet stringent requirements for weight optimisation, functional integration, and reliability in autonomous eVTOL platforms.

Key technical aspects include integration of actuation systems into avionics and flight-control systems, implementation of built-in redundancy to meet safety objectives, and design strategies supporting scalability from prototype to full-rate production. In safety-critical applications such as primary flight controls, redundancy management and fault detection are essential to achieving certification under applicable aviation standards.

Collaboration between system suppliers and aircraft manufacturers is also a central element in enabling certification and industrialisation. Modular platforms such as LiVCAS are designed to align component qualification, system integration, and production scaling within a structured development framework.

Leveraging Experience from Commercial Aviation
Liebherr has developed and produced EMAs for medium and large commercial aircraft for several decades. The current actuator family concept draws on operational data accumulated over millions of flight hours across multiple aircraft programmes. This experience informs reliability modelling, lifecycle performance assessment, and electronics integration.

The new generation of smaller actuators extends this architecture to the AAM sector as well as to smaller aircraft, business jets, and helicopters. The design emphasises compact installation, favourable power-to-weight ratios, and high reliability—parameters that are critical for distributed electric propulsion and autonomous flight-control concepts.

By transferring established electromechanical actuator expertise into modular, scalable systems for eVTOL platforms, Liebherr-Aerospace positions LiVCAS as an enabling technology within the emerging urban and regional air mobility ecosystem.