The Urban Air Mobility Power List

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the first of a series of industry reports from SimpliFlying, where we look at different envirotech sectors.

In future issues we will be examining electric/hybrid/hydrogen aviation, carbon capture projects and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

However, we have started with the urban air mobility sector and EVA (electric vertical aircraft) also known as eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft).

These are small, electrically powered aircraft that can take off and land vertically, and fly horizontally like a normal plane.

There’s a lot of excitement around them in their use as urban mobility or air taxi solutions. One eVTOL boss has even talked about creating “highways in the sky.”

Meanwhile, investment bank Morgan Stanley sees potential for a $1.5 trillion market by 2030.

In the airline space, a number of major players such as American, Virgin Atlantic, JAL and United are now involved in the eVTOL sector, forming partnerships or placing pre-orders with different companiesnone of which yet have an aircraft certified and ready to carry passengers.

And so these investments in a sector, which is still several years away from commercial flight, have recently generated some sceptical headlines.

For example, a July 4th piece in Business Insider talks about “hundreds” of startups being at risk of collapse.

According to the piece there are a whopping 250 air mobility companies that have received VC funding. It would obviously be a stretch to imagine that more than 10% can make it. In fact the projections are that the number of survivors will be in single digits.

At the same time, a report released during

the recent Farnborough Air Show by McKinsey found that investment in the sector was slowing, with $2.2 billion invested in the first half of 2022, compared with $4.3 billion during the same period last year. McKinsey did say that the long term outlook for the sector remains positive.

Five use cases for eVTOLs

So we are facing an inevitable period of consolidation. The aim of this report is to try and figure out the landscape after that happens.

As a result, we first of all look at the potential for the urban air mobility sector.

In the first decade of eVTOLs (2025-2035) we don’t imagine ‘air taxis’ replacing Ubers, due to the number of available aircraft, limitations with routes and air space, the economics, and the challenges of having sufficient pilots available.

Instead of a scenario where flying cars land on your roof, we predict five likely use cases for eVTOLs, which are:

1 - Marquee / prestige flights at major events

2 - Novelty flights for tourists

3 - ‘Last mile’ transfers for premium class airline passengers

4 – Transport for the 1%: Air taxis for celebrities, sports stars and top level business executives. Think Kardashians instead of Jetsons

5 - Cargo and logistics (including medical and military)

We’ve then chosen and profiled eight companies in this space, who we believe are likely to last the course and emerge with working aircraft that end up carrying aircraft and / or cargo.

This is due to a combination of funding, backers, the technology, partners, and pre-orders.

They are: Archer Aviation, BETA Technologies, Eve Air Mobility, Joby Aviation, Supernal, Vertical Aerospace, Volocopter and Wisk.

Dirk Singer Research Director, SimpliFlying dirk@simpliflying.com

This report comes from SimpliFlying

Website - www.simpliflying.com

Email - contact@simpliflying.com

(From News Direct, click to play)

URBAN AIR MOBILITY - THE POTENTIAL

We will first of all look at the potential and hype around the sector.

A recent Deloitte Insights Report, “Change is in the Air”, made a number of projections:

Between 2025-2030, the idea is that we will start seeing the basic infrastructure evolve, including so-called “vertiports”, as well as the first stage of commercial flights -though these are more likely to be piloted, as opposed to autonomous

By 2030, so at the start of the next decade, Deloitte expects to see “greater social acceptance”, e.g normalisation, and greater adoption.

At the same time there will be advances in battery technology allowing for longer ranges.

Already at the Paris Olympics in two years’ time, we should see EVAs getting a significant publicity boost, following the news last year that “flying taxis” are being trialled with the idea that they will be used to bring (we assume) officials and athletes to the Olympic and Paralympic venues.

Those eVTOL’s will be from Volocopter, while British operator Skyports is working

with Paris airports authority Groupe ADP, to create a modular “Vertiport” reception infrastructure.

This facility will enable the testing of boarding and disembarking operations, recharging batteries and vehicle maintenance.

Electric ‘air taxis’ should then be even more prominent at the games after that, in Los Angeles in 2028. This is of course because many urban mobility companies are based in California.

Meanwhile the LA area itself is a so-called “battleground for eVTOLs”, with a number of urban mobility firms partnering with the LA-city funded Urban Movement Labs, which calls itself “a public-private partnership to make Los Angeles the transportation innovation capital of the world.”

As a result, the vision in LA is for the city to be “the transportation technology capital of the world” by the time the 2028 games come around.

So eVTOLs are making the news, being linked to major international events, and urban areas are starting to plan how they can be integrated into their transport systems.

WHAT ARE AIRLINES DOING?

Not surprisingly, airlines are taking an active interest in what Morgan Stanley says will eventually be a $1.5 trillion dollar market.

For example, in February 2021, urban mobility company Archer Aviation made the news, when United Airlines agreed to assist the company in the development of battery-powered, short-haul aircraft.

United said that once the aircraft are in operation “and have met United’s operating and business requirements”, it, along with partner Mesa Airlines, would acquire a fleet of up to 200 of these electric aircraft.

The idea is that they will serve as a “quick, economical and low-carbon way to get to United’s hub airports and commute in dense urban environments within the next five years.”

This was followed by another announcement in April, that United and Archer are forming a joint eVTOL advisory committee.

This committee, chaired by a senior executive of both Archer and United, will be “advising on maintenance and operational concepts to recommend to Archer for its all-electric aircraft aimed at driving towards best-in-class operational standards.”

In Japan, Japan Airlines has said it would like eVTOLs to be in operation for Expo 2025 in Osaka. These electric vertical aircraft will be ones made by Volocopter (in which JAL is an investor).

There’s also active eVTOL airline activity in Brazil. GOL intends to operate 250 aircraft, made by the UK company Vertical Aerospace. At the same time, Lilium, one of the giants in the urban mobility field, is working with Azul to deliver 220 aircraft from 2025.

Meanwhile, Vertical Aerospace and Virgin Atlantic say they are working on shorthaul, electric aircraft connectivity between UK cities and airport hubs starting with London Heathrow, Manchester and London Gatwick.

The two parties say that the V-X4 offers huge potential to support zero emissions short haul transfers for 7.7 million customers outside of London, for flights to and from the UK’s main hub airport.

Finally, American has also signed an agreement with Vertical Aerospace, committing to buy up to 250 aircraft.

(Image from Virgin Atlantic)

THE HYPE VERSUS REALITY

The United order we mentioned sounds impressive, as do the other announcements made by airlines.

But it’s worth noting that United has made a lot of eye catching agreements over the past few years.

There is the one with Boom Supersonic, where United wants to buy Boom’s supersonic aircraft, which aim to use 100% SAF, for trans atlantic and pacific routes.

Then, United has said that it will buy 19-seat commuter aircraft from both Swedish electric aircraft manufacturer Heart Aerospace and UK-US firm ZeroAvia, which is betting on hydrogen-electric technology.

Both involve aircraft with similar uses, but with different technologies, so it’s realistic to assume that United is reasonably hedging its bets here to see which will succeed.

And overall, the majority of airline announcements made are letters of intent or MOUs, or at best contracts with clauses about meeting certain requirements - they don’t involve binding commitments of cash and have get out clauses.

One notable exception is the American Airlines / Vertical Aerospace deal. American’s commitment to make pre-delivery payments and the confirmation of slot reservations for the first 50 aircraft is believed to be the first of its kind for a major airline in the eVTOL industry.

(Image via Archer Aviation)

All this led publication ‘The Air Current’ to wonder whether airlines are lending branding and credibility to urban mobility startups, via showy announcements, often in exchange for shares.

Airlines benefit from the halo effect of being involved with something new and exciting - and something that adds to their sustainability portfolio. And the eVTOL companies get credibility, and have the appearance of momentum.

For example, Lilium gave Brazilian airline Azul the option to buy shares at a discounted rate of €0.12 per share.

Doubts over Lilium - previously the poster child of the sector

And Lilium, which has generated acres of positive press coverage over the past few years, is in particular accused of being a case where the buzz doesn’t match up to reality.

A 2020 report in a German trade magazine doubted Lilium’s technology, while four German engineering professors concluded “Lilium is using brilliant PR to create an illusory world to attract investors.”

Then, earlier this year, Iceberg Research, which says it specialises in uncovering

“financial manipulation”, called Lilium “the losing horse in the eVTOL race” in a damning report.

Iceberg Research made an unfavourable comparison between Lilium, which has been in some ways the poster child for the eVTOL sector, and rival Joby Aviation.

While Joby had by March flown 150 miles in its current model, Iceberg said that Lilium had not flown for more than three minutes.

Iceberg was also sceptical about Lilium’s battery performance, cash burn rate, and leadership team.

Separately, a piece by Leeham News and Analysis, has a good overview of some of the challenges faced by the technology, remarking that while other companies manage the transition to forward flight months after the first hover flight, - “the Lilium project is in its seventh year, yet it has not transitioned from hover to forward flight during this period.” (note, Lilium has achieved main wing transition, but not for the vehicle).

We did ask to speak to Lilium representatives about the claims made in the report and about their progress, but their PR representatives referred us to the media section of the website and FAQs.

(Image from American Airlines)

More Kardashians than The Jetsons

Overall, the eVTOL sector does have its fair share of sceptics.

For example, in 2019, German news channel NTV ran a report entitled, “why air taxis will fail.”

The report cast doubt over various aspects of the eVTOL proposition such as battery technology, the problems of flying over heavily populated urban areas, safety issues with both piloted and autonomous vehicles and the dubious economics that say air taxis will cost as much as an Uber.

The technology has obviously moved on over the past three years, but we agree with one core point:

Much as the popular press (and some of the eVTOL companies) would like people to think so, people won’t be swapping their cars for air taxis.

For one thing, there won’t be either enough pilots or enough vehicles. And there will be restrictions on flying over urban areas in particular.

To take just the point about pilots, an important one as almost all the main eVTOL companies intend to start with piloted flights.

A piece in Flight Global summarises the challenges. One very optimistic developer says that eVTOL training will be like training to drive a bus. Yet, “unlike a road-based public transport vehicle, in the event of trouble, you cannot just pull over, engage the handbrake, and flick on the hazard lights.”

Instead, many of the first eVTOLs will be flown by retrained commercial pilots - and there is already a commercial pilot shortage.

This won’t be like the cartoon show ‘The Jetsons’, where air cars land on your roof and in your backyard. Instead of the Jetsons, think more of the Kardashians.

FIVE USE CASES

So if eVTOLs won’t be replacing Ubers - at least not initially - what will they be replacing? A more likely use case is for them to do tasks currently done by helicopters, executive jets and cargo drones.

Initially, during the first Urban Mobility decade (2025-2035), we predict five use cases for electric air taxis or eVTOLs, as follows:

1 - Marquee flights at major events

2 - Novelty flights for tourists

3 - First or last mile travel to airports for premium passengers

4 - Transport for the 1%

5 - Cargo and logistics

To take each of these in turn:

1 - Marquee flights at major events

eVTOLs are being talked up around global sporting events, such as the 2024 Paris and 2028 LA Olympics, as well as the 2025 World Expo in Osaka.

With the 2024 games only two years away, it seems unlikely that the air taxis being trialled for the games will actually be used for spectators.

Corridors will of course be quite restricted, the numbers of eVTOLs will be limited, and they can each only take four passengers. As a result, expect maybe a number of high profile flights involving top IOC officials or athletes.

(Image from Volocopter)

2 - Novelty flights for tourists

Given that helicopter tourist flights are available in a lot of major urban centres, we expect some of these to be replaced by eVTOLs.

One example of this is the agreement signed between Embraer’s eVTOL company ‘Eve’, and Falcon Aviation Services in the UAE.

With a letter of intent signed for 35 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, the aim is that from 2025, the partnership will introduce the first eVTOL touristic flights from the Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai.

Similarly, German company Volocopter is very active in Singapore and sees the first flights taking place around leisure and tourism hotspots Marina Bay and Sentosa Island.

3 - Ferrying premium passengers to airports

Will masses of people use electric air taxis to reach airports?

Given that a Boeing 777-9 has capacity for 426 passengers, and that eVTOLs will initially hold four passengers, that would mean 100+ eVTOLs for one flight.

So that’s unlikely. But what is more likely is that the highest paying passengers on a flight will be given an eVTOL option.

This will be similar to what helicopter service Blade is doing for select JetBlue passengers from JFK and EWR to and from Manhattan.

Blade in fact intends to transition from helicopters to eVTOLs, and is working with Vermont based BETA, which we profile later in this report.

(Image from Eve Air Mobility)

4 - Transportation for the 1%

In July 2022 celebrity Kylie Jenner was branded a “climate criminal” for taking a 17 minute private jet flight (or 12 minutes, depending on what media you read) in the LA area.

15-20 minute eVTOL flights are of course perfectly feasible, and as eVTOLs are electric, they are zero carbon (depending on the energy source for the electricity of course).

You could even foresee eVTOLs being something of a status symbol for major celebrities. As most early models will require a pilot, they are also hugely expensive.

Similarly, premium helicopter charter company Halo Aviation has placed forward orders for 200 EVE eVTOLs from Embraer spin-off Eve Air Mobility. Halo will probably be using these to ferry around celebrities, sports stars and top level CEOs.

Halo says 100 of Eve’s aircraft will be based in the US and 100 in the UK.

5 - Cargo flights

Drones and other autonomous vehicles are already in use for cargo and freight, so it’s actually not much of a stretch to see this as a use case for electric vertical aircraft. In fact, at the end of last year, Forbes ran a

piece on eVTOL startup Beta Technologies (BETA) entitled, “Amazon and UPS Are Betting This Electric Aircraft Startup Will Change Shipping.”

This comes as UPS announced that it plans to purchase eVTOL aircraft from BETA, to augment its air service for select small and mid-size markets.

UPS says that aircraft will be able to take off and land at UPS facilities in “a whisperquiet fashion, reducing time-in-transit, vehicle emissions, and operating cost.”

In March 2022, Eve and Kenya Airways’ subsidiary, Fahari Aviation, signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for up to 40 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.

The agreement includes joint studies through a working group to develop and scale the UAM market and a business model for cargo drone operations in Kenya. The project is expected to start deliveries in 2026.

When it comes to logistics, industry publication eVTOL ran a piece looking at how electric air vehicles could deliver life saving equipment.

Finally, a number of defence and military contractors are looking at how eVTOLs can be used to move equipment and supplies.

(Image from UPS)

EIGHT EVTOL COMPANIES TIPPED FOR SUCCESS

We’ve talked about the inevitable period of consolidation, and at SimpliFlying we’ve chosen eight urban mobility companies that we believe will last the course, where their aircraft is likely to see the light of day this decade.

They are:

1 - Archer Aviation

2 - BETA

3 - Eve Air Mobility

4 - Joby Aviation

5 - Supernal

6 - Vertical Aerospace

7 - Volocopter

8 - Wisk

The criteria we used Why have we chosen these eight? We looked at a number of criteria.

First of all funding. Speaking at the 2022 Farnborough Air Show, Wisk CEO Gary Gysin pointed out that developing a new aircraft from start to finish represents a $2 billion cost. Obviously, very few of the 250 urban mobility start-ups will manage that.

Many companies in this sector have

also been funded via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), a shell company listed on a stock exchange, which is used to acquire a private company and speed up the listing process.

SPACs have come under negative scrutiny, and quoted in Business Insider, Brian Foley of Brian Foley Associates, says that companies that went down this road are in a vulnerable cash-flow position.

As a result, as well as money in the bank right now, it’s crucial to look at backers and partners who are committed to seeing each urban mobility project come to fruition, and will put in more money and resources if needed.

We’ve looked at airlines and other commercial organisations who have placed pre-orders with each company, though as discussed most of these don’t yet involve money changing hands.

And finally, there’s the question of how far down the road the different ventures are in carrying out successful tests and flights.

In the next section, we will give a brief overview of each company.

(Click to play, via Joby Aviation)

Archer Aviation

Based in - San Jose, California CEO - Adam Goldstein

Website - https://www.archer.com/

Aircraft name - Maker

Notable partner - United Airlines

Archer is building a four seat aircraft, which with a pilot will be aiming for 20-30 minute routes. Archer has an ambitious timeline to gain FAA certification by 2024, and then to build the network after that.

The focus for now is major metropolitan areas in the USA, especially southern California, with an LAX - downtown LA trip taking six minutes. Archer also last year said it would develop an urban mobility network in Miami.

Archer achieved its first hover’ flight with its Maker demonstration aircraft in December, and intends to reach full transition flights (vertical takeoff / horizontal flight) by the end of the year.

Though other companies in this space have reached transition, Archer believes that its progress from first hover flight through full transition will be the fastest pace any eVTOL company has reached this milestone.

Archer has strong support from United Airlines, with United and Archer forming a ‘joint eVTOL advisory committee.’

Former United CEO Oscar Munoz has joined the Archer board, and the airline has placed an order for $1 billion of Archer’s aircraft.

Archer and rival Wisk are currently involved in a dispute involving the alleged theft of intellectual property, with a trial expected next year. Earlier this year the US authorities decided not to prosecute an Archer employee at the centre of the dispute.

BETA Technologies

Based in - Burlington, Vermont

CEO - Kyle Clark

Website - https://www.beta.team/

Aircraft name - ALIA

Notable partners - UPS, Amazon, US Army, Blade

With a billion dollar valuation, BETA is best known for its work in bringing eVTOLs to the cargo space.

Key investors include Fidelity and Amazon. In late June, Amazon made a second investment through its $2 billion climate change fund. This followed a test flight of the company’s ALIA aircraft between two Amazon Air Hubs in the Northern Kentucky and Ohio region, the first-ever test of an electric aircraft at Amazon facilities.

Designed initially for the transportation of medical products and cargo, BETA says that the ALIA-250 will carry 1,400 pounds of payload and requires less than an hour to charge after full missions.

With an order of 150 aircraft from UPS, BETA has additional interest from the US Army, which is assessing Alia for cargo and logistics missions.

BETA also plans a passenger version of ALIA holding five passengers and a pilot and is looking for FAA certification in 2024. Earlier in the report we mentioned helicopter company Blade wanting to transition to eVTOLs, and last year Blade signed a non-binding agreement to become the first passenger customer for ALIA.

According to Forbes, CEO Kyle Clark is gearing up for a second venture, a network of electric aircraft charging stations around the USA, similar to the Tesla charging network. Forbes says most will contain banks of used batteries from ALIA aircraft, where the capacity has declined by around 8%.

Eve Air Mobility

Based in - Ft Lauderdale (Florida), São José dos Campos (Brazil)

CEO - Andre Stein

Website - https://eveairmobility.com/

Aircraft name - EVE

Notable partners - Embraer, Wideroe, BAE Systems, Halo, Kenya Airways, Zanite, Republic, SkyWest

Eve Air Mobility was spun out of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, and forms a key part of the company’s sustainability strategy.

Valued at almost $3 billion, Eve is on the road to becoming a market leader in the eVTOL space. By late April Eve had 1825 provisional sales and commitments for its aircraft.

The company is looking to start commercial operations in 2026. Initially the EVE eVTOL will hold four passengers and a pilot, but the idea is to move to autonomous flight in the medium term.

The list of partners working with Eve is significant. This includes Wideroe Zero (a subsidiary of airline Wideroe), with the aim of looking at UAM use in Scandinavia and private urban air mobility company Halo, which wants to buy 200 aircraft for private executive flights, half of which will be based in the UK and half in the USA.

Halo is also the launch customer for Eve’s ‘urban air traffic management solution’, which is described as an “agnostic portfolio of solutions that will enable the integration of all airspace users in the urban environment, which is critical to supporting the safety, efficiency, and improvement of the entire UAM ecosystem.”

Other partners who have placed orders include BAE Systems (for defence-logistics purposes), Kenya Airways, Global Crossing Airlines (for Florida operations), Republic Airways, Falcon Aviation (UAE) and SkyWest

At the 2022 Farnborough Air Show, Eve unveiled the new four passenger cabin for EVE.

Joby Aviation

Based in - Santa Cruz, California CEO - JoeBen Bevirt (Founder)

Website - https://www.jobyaviation.com/

Aircraft name - Joby S4

Notable partners - Uber, Toyota, Intel, JetBlue, ANA, NASA

Joby is another potential giant in the urban mobility space, having received $590 million in funding from Toyota in 2020. In the same year, Joby also incorporated Uber’s former ‘elevate’ business into its operations.

Joby went public in August 2021, with a valuation of $4.5 billion, while the heavyweight board includes figures such as LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

Joby claims to have both the speed record (205mph) and distance record (150+ miles) for an eVTOL.

Speaking at the Farnborough Air Show, founder JoeBen Bevirt talked about Joby’s electric vertical aircraft being used in major urban centres in the UK, US, as well as in Japan and South Korea in 2024.

Coinciding with the Farnborough Air Show, Joby also said it had applied for UK aircraft certification from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). In May, the company had already received a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, one of the three FAA approvals required for it to begin US air taxi services.

In Japan, Joby is working with Japanese airline ANA and Toyota to develop an aerial ride sharing service in Japan, while a similar partnership was announced with telecoms company SKT to bring air taxis to South Korea.

In a letter to shareholders in May, Joby Aviation said that it had $1.2 billion in cash and short term investments to support operations.

Supernal

Based in - Washington DC CEO - Jaiwon Shin Website - https://supernal.aero/ Aircraft name - S-A1

Notable partners - Hyundai

Supernal started out as the Urban Mobility Division of the Hyundai Motor Group in January 2020, debuting as Supernal in November 2021.

With the aim of launching commercial flights in 2028, Supernal is a relatively late entrant to the market with a later launch date than some of its competitors.

However, parent Hyundai was in 2017 the world’s third largest vehicle manufacturer by production value behind Toyota (which is backing rival Joby Aviation) and Volkswagen, so it has the financial and manufacturing muscle to see the concept through.

Basing the company in Washington DC, not South Korea, Hyundai has also invested heavily in management talent. For example, CTO Ben Diachun was formerly CEO of eVTOL company Opener. Deputy CTO and head of R&D Han Park comes from Samsung and Northrop Grunman, while Global Head of Policy Diana Marina Cooper has years of aviation industry experience.

Supernal’s five seater (four passenger and one pilot) S-A1 was unveiled at CES in 2020, when it was still under the Hyundai brand name.

Supernal is focusing on the urban air mobility infrastructure, as well as on development aircraft. A piece in DesignBoom talks about integrated transport systems where you might take a flight to a vertiport, and then the final trip to your house on an e-scooter.

In April, Supernal debuted what it said was the world’s first functional advanced mobility vertiport with Urban-Air Port in Coventry, UK. Supernal has also become one of a number of urban air mobility companies in signing an MOU with the City of Miami

Vertical Aerospace

Based in - Bristol, UK CEO - Stephen Fizpatrick

Website - https://vertical-aerospace.com/

Aircraft name - VX4

Notable partners - American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Avolon, Honeywell, Microsoft, Rolls Royce

UK eVTOL company Vertical Aerospace made the news when it announced what is believed to be the first eVTOL / airline deal to involve pre-delivery payments. This came as American reserved delivery slots for 50 VX4 aircraft of its initial conditional pre-order of up to 250 aircraft, with an option for an additional 100, announced in June 2021.

Other airlines that Vertical Aerospace has signed agreements with include Virgin Atlantic, Air Asia, GOL and Japan Airlines (the latter three via aircraft leasing company Avolon). Meanwhile, business jet operator FLYINGGROUP, based in Belgium and operating throughout Europe and the Middle East has ordered 50 aircraft.

As of July, Vertical Aerospace had 1400 pre-orders on its books.

Vertical Aerospace already has a track record of successfully flying its VAX2 aircraft in 2019. The company is now developing the VX4, incorporating Honeywell’s F35 fighter jet technology. The VX4, like most other aircraft in this class, will carry four passengers.

Following a merger with Broadstone Acquisition Group, Vertical Aerospace listed on the NYSE at the end of last year. Public shareholders joined earlier investors American Airlines, Avolon, Honeywell, Microsoft’s M12, Kouros, Rolls-Royce, 40North and Rocket.

In the UK, Vertical Aerospace is part of the UK Government funded Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium to look at Advanced Air Mobility, with other parties including Virgin Atlantic, Cranfield University and air traffic control organisation NATS.

Volocopter

Based in - Bruchsal, Germany

CEO - Florian Reuter (until Sept), then Dirk Hoke Website - https://www.volocopter.com/

Aircraft name - VoloConnect

Notable partners - Japan Airlines Innovation Fund, Geely Technology Group, NEOM

Volocopter’s goal is to fly electric air taxis at the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics. As we say earlier in the report, we imagine this will be more for select officials rather than actual spectators.

However, the most impressive announcements from Volocopter actually involve the work that the company is doing in Asia. At the end of 2020, Volcopter committed to developing an urban air mobility network in Singapore.

Here, Volocopter’s internal studies show that its UAM services can generate an estimated SGD 4.18 billion (US$ 3bn) in cumulative economic benefits and create up to 1,300 local jobs by 2030. Initially there will be tourist flights over Marina Bay and Sentosa, then crossborder flights to Indonesia and Malaysia.

In China, Aerofugia, a subsidiary of Geely Technology Group, has created a JV with Volocopter and pre-ordered 150 aircraft. In Japan, Volocopter has committed to fly during the 2025 World Expo in Osaka. Meanwhile the Japan Airlines Innovation Fund has already invested in Volocopter, and is aiming for commercial launch in Japan.

In Saudi Arabia, Volocopter has signed a JV agreement for air mobility with NEOM, the new development and ‘smart’ city being built in the desert.

With the tests of its four seater ‘VoloConnect’, Volocopter claims to be “the only eVTOL developer in the Western hemisphere to have an entire fleet of distinct aircraft configurations undergoing flight tests.” Volcopter also has the two seater ‘VoloCity’ as well as the ‘VoloDrone’ in testing, with VoloCity being the model most likely to be used in 2024.

Wisk

Based in - Mountain View, California

CEO - Gary Gysin

Website - https://wisk.aero/ Aircraft name - Cora

Notable partners - Boeing, Kitty Hawk Corporation, NASA

Speaking at the Farnborough Air Show, Wisk CEO Gary Gysin talked about Wisk being as affordable as an Uber X (as we’ve said earlier in the report, we think that is initially unlikely) and the decision to move straight to autonomous vehicles - in contrast to other players in this space that will launch with piloted eVTOLs.

Gysin does not see having pilots on board as being economically viable. Instead, human intervention will be possible via ground stations that will resemble ATC Centres.

Wisk was formed in 2019 as a partnership between Boeing and the Kitty Hawk Corporation, an electric aircraft company backed by Google co-founder Larry Page. In January, Boeing announced that it was putting another $450 million into the company, which it says makes it one of the best funded companies in this space worldwide.

Wisk has developed five generations of its aircraft and intends to unveil the sixth in the Autumn, which it will then bring through FAA certification.

Wisk’s plan is to initially be the aircraft operator for partners, including major cities.

At Farnborough, Gysin said that the company is talking to 20 cities worldwide including ones in Australia and New Zealand. Although he was only prepared to name Long Beach, California, it’s a good bet that another one of those cities is Brisbane, thanks to the MOU signed with the Queensland Council of Mayors.

Along with Joby Aviation, Wisk was selected by NASA as a partner in its advanced air mobility project.

OTHER URBAN AIR MOBILITY COMPANIES TO WATCH

CityAirbus NextGen - The eVTOL concept from Airbus. As this report was being written, Airbus announced that it was building a test centre.

EHang - Chinese Urban Autonomous Vehicle company

Jetson - Swedish company developing a personal one seater aircraft (the ‘Jetson ONE’)

Lilium - High profile German eVTOL company, with 200+ pre orders from Azul in Brazil and Helity Copter Airlines in Europe

Odys Aviation - Backed by Hyperloop One co-founder Brogan Bambrogan

Overair - Recently received $145 million in funding to develop its ‘Butterfly’ eVTOL

Urban Aeronautics - Israeli tech company, aims to have its ‘CityHawk’ air taxi in use by 2029

(From Jetson, click to play)