Aerospace innovator Zuri has publicly presented its full-size, non-flying display aircraft for the first time at the AERO Friedrichshafen 2026 exhibition.
The physical model serves as a three-dimensional representation of the company’s upcoming Technology Demonstrator 2.0, or TD 2.0, allowing industry visitors to evaluate the form, scale, and proportions of the hybrid-electric tiltrotor design.
This debut marks a major development milestone for attendees who have tracked Zuri’s engineering progression at the annual event over the past four years. The program originally debuted as a virtual reality concept in 2023, advanced to a physical airframe skeleton in 2024, and progressed to an upgraded systems testbed in 2025 before arriving at the current full-scale display model.
Following its initial trade show appearance, the display aircraft returned to the Czech Republic for a homecoming exhibition at Maker Faire Prague, shifting its focus from industry professionals to an audience of makers, students, engineers, and families in the city where the project originated from a single sketch.
While the exhibition model serves as a static stand-in for public engagement, assembly of the functional TD 2.0 platform is actively underway at Zuri’s Prague workshop. As the second technology demonstrator in the development pipeline, this functional aircraft is being built to validate the hybrid-electric powertrain, mechanical tiltrotor systems, and aerodynamic transition control laws required for a larger regional aircraft configuration.
Unmanned flight testing for the functional TD 2.0 aircraft is scheduled to commence in late 2026.
