Manufacturers
A³ (Airbus)
Headquarters: A³, pronounced A cubed, is the Silicon Valley arm of French aerospace giant Airbus. What: Several eVTOL concepts are in development. As of early 2019, the one-person electric Vahana Alpha One had flown more than 50 test flights. The second aircraft, Alpha Two, is the first Vahana demonstrator with a finished interior. The company’s…
AeroMobil
Headquarters: Slovakia What: In April, 2018, this eight-year-old engineering firm launched the hybrid-electric AeroMobile 5.0 prototype, a four-wheeled, four-passenger VTOL that can be driven on roads and flown in the air. It’s intended to be used as a way to get around metropolitan areas. The company also has a 4.0 STOL (short take-off and landing),…
Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation
Headquarters: Manassas, VA What: Acquired by Boeing in the fall of 2017, Aurora specializes in flight systems for pilotless electric aircraft for both military and commercial applications. It’s produced a line of small eVTOL autonomous aircraft. Before being acquired by Boeing, Aurora had been working with Uber to develop flying taxis and demonstration flights had…
Bell Air Taxi on the Move
The Uber/Bell Flight partnership to create an urban air taxi system in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is on a tight schedule. Both companies want the Uber Elevate system operating between the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and Frisco Station by 2023, with first test flights expected by 2020. Given the schedule, there’s speculation that a recent patent…
Cartivator
Headquarters: Japan What: Toyota recently invested $370,000 in this nonprofit organization, which is employing the skills of volunteers from the automobile, aviation, and IT industries to develop a road/air quadrotor craft called SkyDrive. The aerial car’s rotors remain folded while being driven on the road and unfold when transitioning to flight mode. Maximum flight speed…
Ehang
Ehang Headquarters: China What: At the 2016 CES tech conference in Las Vegas, Ehang tested the Ehang 184, an egg-shaped, single-passenger autonomous quadcopter that can carry up to 220 pounds for 10 miles or about 25 minutes in the air. The passenger doesn’t fly the craft; he simply sets the flight path into the computer…