More and more Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft projects are on the drawing board.
Those aircraft will be used for short-haul transport of passengers or cargo. It introduces the concept of Urban air mobility (UAM).
The Global eVTOL Aircraft Market Report have projected a US$ 162 million investment in 2019 and forecast a US$ +411 million one by 2025. +20,42% for the period 2019-2025.
Key Players
Embraer X, subsidiary of the company Embraer, which aims to “enable and accelerate the urban mobility ecosystem”. To develop this project Embraer has built partnerships with other companies like Pipistrel; Aurora Flight Science (Boeing subsidiary) or NASA. The estimated timeline for this project is estimated by 2030.
Moreover, Embraer has revealed in June 2019 the air taxi project in partnership with the company Uber.
Bell with its 5 seat Nexus Air Taxi that have been revealed with a full-size demonstration at the CES last January. This vehicle will house four passengers and one pilot. It is powered by a hybrid electric propulsion system using a SAFRAN turbine. Few other companies are also participating to the project: EPS (Energy storage systems) ; Thales (flight control computer, hardware and software) ; Moog (flight control actuation systems) and Garmin (avionics and vehicle management computer).
Airbus with A³. Vahana is a project developed at A³, the Silicon Valley outpost of Airbus. A³ enables access to unique talent and ideas, new partnership opportunities, and execution at speed. Vahana aims to democratize personal flight and answer the growing need for urban mobility by leveraging the latest technologies in electric propulsion, energy storage, and machine vision.
But also, other actors like Boeing, Skylis, Lilium, Ehang, Volcopter 2X…
We can see that numbers of eVTOL projects are already under study, and many other will arise. In fact, the German consultancy Roland Berger forecast that in 2025 our world will count 3,000 eVTOL passenger drones by 2025.
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