(Picture above, a Lilium aircraft)
eVTOLs showing more promise Every week we see news of a new eVTOL venture, promising zero carbon commutes in major urban centres. In mid June for example, Tomasz Patan, who is also the chief technology officer of Jetson, shared a video of how he flew the company’s $83,600 vehicle ONE from his home in Tuscany to work, cutting the usual travel time by car by nearly 90 per cent.. Then there was Archer Aviation, which said it had recently begun testing a prototype called Maker with a new configuration that supports “transition flight”—the transition between an aircraft being lifted by vertical propellers and being carried by the wings for horizontal movement. In terms of transitioning, German company Lilium, perhaps one of the best known and funded operators in this space, said it reached that milestone earlier this month. Meanwhile Wisk Aero (funded by Boeing and the Kitty Hawk company, among others) envisages “freeways in the skies”, and is currently working on an urban mobility project with the city of Long Beach, California.
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AMM - July 2022
Deloitte expects eVTOL aircraft to be common in major cities by 2030, acting as a ride-hailing and ride-sharing service within and between cities. In fact, a report by Insight Partners, says that the eVTOL market will be worth $1.75 billion by 2028. There’s been some scepticism about the medium term feasibility of hydrogen / electric commercial aviation. But at the smaller, shorter range end of the scale, it is slowly becoming a reality. Heart Aerospace and ZeroAvia for example both have orders from airlines for the 19 seat commuter aircraft each are working on. They will be used for short hops from small regional centres to major hubs (which as an aside, complicates the argument that short distance air travel needs to move to rail transport). Then, further down at an urban commuter level, eVTOL aircraft are showing promise, getting funding and the technology is becoming a reality.
