eVTOLS: How flying cars are becoming reality

It all began with patent number 37435 way back in 1886, when Carl Benz outlined his vision for a vehicle powered by a gas engine. That’s when the common car as we know it was born. Since then, innovations have happened under the hood and in design they’ve become a lot safer. But cars always had one thing in common. They were propelled along the ground. In 1903, the Wright brothers took to the skies, opening up a new way to travel. But for the most part, airplanes and cars developed separately. Throughout the 20th century, sales of private vehicles boomed as the technology, gasoline, and infrastructure became ubiquitous and affordable, while private planes remained only for the Super rich. But other two finally coming together? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time inventors have tried to make a flying car take this prototype from 1946, or these, which were developed for a secret U.S. military project in the late 1950s. Today, though, most innovators and investors tend to reject the term flying car. Instead, the acronym E VTOL has taken off. E VTOL stands for Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing. As that acronym suggests, EV tolls are powered by electricity, not fuel, and they take off and land vertically like what you’re used to seeing with a helicopter. And that in between bit well, they fly like a traditional aircraft. There are hundreds of EV toll designs in the works, but let’s look at four of the most common. There’s the multicopter, which operates pretty much like your standard drone. They are very efficient during take off landing and while hovering, but because they don’t have wings, they’re incredibly inefficient at going long distances, so they’re generally limited to urban areas. The lift and cruise concept merges the multicopter with common aircraft technology, making longer distances possible. But to get the two technologies to work together, the propeller needs fewer and shorter blades, making it very noisy. Then there’s tilt rotor, a design which has one or more powered rotors mounted on the ends of the vehicle’s wings. If it looks familiar, it’s because it’s the same design used by the Osprey military helicopter. Tilts are efficient, lower noise and have a long range, but they can’t carry as much weight as the previous two models due to their complex technology. Finally, there’s ducted vector thrust models, which don’t have a propeller insight. They utilise multiple individually controlled electrical ducted fans to push the vehicle upwards. This model is quieter and can fly longer distances efficiently. However hovering requires 2 times the power consumption of regular open rotor models. EV tolls offer many benefits over traditional aircraft. Being electric, they improve energy efficiency, they are less noisy and relatively cost efficient to operate. But what will they be used for? Most EV toll makers see them being used for Urban Air mobility, that is short hops within cities or to outlying airports. Then there’s the industrial use, such as cargo deliveries, especially when it comes to the so-called middle mile in the supply chain. That’s from a port or a factory to a distribution centre. There’s also hopes the aircraft will save lives. EV tolls can access difficult to reach areas, which could make them a viable option in medical emergencies, natural disasters or for search and rescue missions. So are we in the golden age of EV toll development or the mother of all aerospace bubbles? Well, it depends on who you’re talking to. More than 400 companies and innovators have registered EV toll designs and they’ve attracted billions of dollars in funding over the last decade. Amongst these investors are famous faces such as LinkedIn Co founder Reed Hoffman, musician Will I Am F1 champion Nico Rosberg and ex Google CEO Larry Page. Though Pages E Vito startup Kitty Hawk announced it was winding down operations at the end of 2023, companies investing in the space include Uber, Airbus, Toyota, American Airlines and more. Those punts will really pay off if forecasts are right, with one estimate saying the EV toll market will grow from $1.2 billion in 2023 to $23.4 billion by the end of the decade. That’s an annual average growth rate of 52%. So what needs to happen to reach that target? Well, first, there’s working with regulators. the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the Civil Aviation Administration of China have laid out various certifications these vehicles will need to meet before taking to our skies. There’s the type certification, which refers to the model design. China issued the world’s first EV toll type certification to A2 seater autonomous aircraft made by E Hung in October 2023. But that’s just step one. Regulators will also want oversight on the production of the vehicles. Pilots may need a special licence to operate them. And of course, there’s figuring out how to fit these new vehicles into the existing air traffic infrastructure, which is why the FAA, which called safety its North Star, doesn’t see operations scaling at one or more sites until 2028. Infrastructure is also paramount. EV tolls will need a place to take off land and recharge, so-called Vertiports. Microscale airports have been proposed as the solution for this, but they’ll need to be built 1st and the final barrier? Public acceptance. A sci-fi like Future with E vitals buzzing above won’t truly happen until people feel comfortable stepping into one.