We May Soon Have 'Highways in the Sky'

When he was still a boy making long, tedious trips between his school and his mountain home during the '80s, JoeBen Bevirt fantasized about flying cars that could whisk him to his destination in minutes. As CEO of Joby Aviation, Bevirt is getting closer to turning his boyhood dream into reality as latter-day versions of the Wright brothers launch a new class of electric-powered aircraft vying to become sky taxis.

• The aircraft—an "electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle" (eVTOL)—lifts off like a helicopter before flying up to 200mph, with a range of about 100 miles. These craft fly without the excessive noise caused by fuel-powered helicopters and small airplanes, per the AP. "We are just a few steps from the finish line," Bevirt says. "We want to turn what are now one- and two-hour trips into five-minute trips."

• Archer Aviation, a Silicon Valley company backed by United Airlines and automaker Stellantis, has been testing its own eVTOLs over farmland in Salinas, California. The tests are part of the journey that Joby Aviation and other ambitious companies are taking to turn flying cars into more than just pie-in-the-sky concepts popularized in The Jetsons.
• Archer and nearby Wisk Aero, with ties to Boeing and Google co-founder Larry Page, are also at the forefront in the race to bring air taxis to market. Joby has already formed a partnership to connect its air taxis with Delta Air Lines passengers, while Archer Aviation has a deal to sell up to 200 of its aircraft to United Airlines.
• Flying taxis have made enough regulatory inroads with the FAA to result in the recent creation of a new aircraft category called "powered lift." But there are more regulatory hurdles to clear before air taxis will be allowed in the US, making Dubai the most likely place where eVTOLs will debut, perhaps by year's end. "It's a tricky business to develop a whole new class of vehicles," said Adam Lim of Alton Aviation Consultancy.
• Eventually, "you will see highways in the sky," says Archer Aviation CEO Adam Goldstein. "There will be hundreds, maybe thousands of these aircraft flying ... and it will truly change the way cities are being built." More here.

(More eVTOL stories.)