Joby Aviaton N545JX

Joby, partnered with Delta Airlines and Uber, has emerged as one of the front-runners in the race to get electric airborne commuter vehicles off the ground. In a recent demonstration, it showed that it could cut the hour-long car journey from JFK Airport to central Manhattan down to just seven minutes. Rather than personal vehicles for the very wealthy, Joby is focusing on advanced mobility for the masses, with a goal of eventually pricing services at around the same level as premium car hire services like Uber Black. The end goal is to make aerial commuting a day-to-day reality for ordinary people, saving them from endless traffic jams and train delays.

Ehang EH216-S

Most of the vehicles we’re looking at here are designed to be flown by pilots transporting passengers. The latest model in Ehang’s fleet, however, is entirely autonomous. It’s become the first self-flying air taxi service to be given regulatory approval to begin commercial operations in China, where it has begun offering sightseeing trips. With trials and pilot projects in 19 countries, often focusing on airport-to-city runs, Ehang is betting that the capacity and weight benefits will create a business advantage. The big question, though, is whether we’re ready to be flown through the skies in vehicles with no human pilots.

Alef Model A

This is the closest so far to the “traditional” flying car beloved of Back To The Future fans. Although it doesn’t resemble a Delorean, the Model A is designed as a road-legal electric vehicle that fits in a standard car garage, drives on existing roads and can also lift itself vertically into the air to fly. This represents an alternative vision of the future of advanced mobility, where existing infrastructure is reused, and the need for new infrastructure, such as “vertipads” and “vertiports” for taking off and landing, is reduced. Its business model is based on private ownership, presumably for people with very deep pockets, rather than public transport and ride share.

Whisk Aero Gen 6

Boeing subsidiary Whisk Aero gives us an insight into how incumbent aviation leaders are reacting to the emergence of personal air transport. Like Ehang, Whisk Aero’s Gen 6 is fully autonomous. This year, the company was picked by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to lead a national pilot program aimed at establishing safety rules and regulations for autonomous air travel. This shows the challenges go beyond building vehicles and include adapting air traffic control infrastructure to handle thousands of personal craft operating simultaneously.

Pivotal Helix

Highlighting the impact of regulation on the race for air taxi supremacy, Helix is specifically designed to weigh under the 348lbs FAA limit, above which vehicle operators need a pilot license. This means it could be limited to flying in “uncongested areas”. But Helix is designed for use in remote areas where deliveries are difficult, as well as for emergency services and military applications. It will probably be popular with daredevil amateur pilots who like the idea of a personal aircraft that’s as easy to fly as a toy drone, too. The attention given to his project and its predecessor Blackfly suggests that utility is envisaged for eVTOL that goes beyond commuting and urban uses.

SkyDrive SD-05

Skydrive is a Japanese air mobility startup with backing from Suzuki. Unlike larger Chinese and Western machines, Skydrive’s SD-05 is deliberately designed to be highly compact, in order to operate in crowded Asian megacities like Tokyo, Delhi and Jakarta. SkyDrive is also leveraging its partnerships with Japanese car manufacturers to create production lines more similar to those used for building cars than aircraft, increasing the speed and reducing the cost of production.

AutoFlight Prosperity And CarryAll

Autoflight, headquartered in China but with operations in Europe and the U.S., has two electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles making headlines: the passenger-carrying Prosperity and the cargo-focused CarryAll. The Carryall, with a maximum takeoff weight of one ton and a range of 200km, is the only cargo eVTOL I’ve covered here, and is already in use for transport and logistics tasks. The aim is to build a “low-altitude transport network” facilitating the transport of goods across China’s vast industrial zones.

Before long, flying cars, eVTOL and other autonomous airborne vehicles could well be an everyday reality, in day-to-day use for personal transport, logistics, emergency response and industry.

As vehicles like the ones covered here transition from prototypes to production lines, we’ll get a clearer picture of how the opportunities they create will translate to market adoption.

As for those of you who are just reading this because you’ve been looking forward to flying cars since the eighties? Well, as the Doc said, “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”