Dwindling List Of EVTOL Firms Shrinks Further

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The inevitable is occurring in the dead end space of Jetsons urban air mobility fantasies. Two more origami rotorcraft have left the vertiport for the great airplane graveyard in the sky as Volocopter disappears and Airbus drops its program.

Volocopter was founded in 2011 in Bruchsal, Germany. Initially named e-Volo, the company gained attention in 2011 with its maiden flight of the Volocopter VC1, the world’s first manned multicopter. Over the years, Volocopter expanded its vision to the fanciful notion of disrupting urban transportation. The company developed several models, including the VoloCity for passenger transport and the VoloDrone for cargo delivery. With significant backing from investors such as Daimler and Intel, Volocopter achieved some milestones, but not many.

Volocopter aimed to showcase its eVTOL technology on a global stage by launching passenger air taxi services during the Paris 2024 Olympics. The company planned to operate its flagship aircraft, the VoloCity, to transport one passenger at a time with perhaps a carry on bag from a barge in the Seine to the Charles de Gaulle airport. Never mind that the RER B train connects Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to central Paris, providing a fast and efficient transit option for travelers. Departing every 10–15 minutes from Terminals 2 and 3, the RER B runs to major Paris stations like Gare du Nord and Châtelet-Les Halles in about 30–40 minutes. It carries an estimated 40,000 passengers and all of their luggage per hour during peak times, serving both airport travelers and local commuters.

That plan failed due to delays in obtaining necessary engine certifications. The company cited issues with a U.S. supplier failing to deliver components on time, which hindered the certification process. Additionally, the project faced criticism from Paris city officials over concerns about noise pollution and the perception that the service would cater exclusively to the wealthy, a completely reasonable observation.

This was, of course, before the FAA released its downdraft testing results on similar multi-rotor eVTOLs and found category 2 hurricane force winds and changed its vertiport requirements to require much larger setbacks and much more restrictive flightpaths. That wouldn’t have made anyone happy if the planned flights in Paris had occurred.

Being unable to get to certification is par for the course for eVTOLs. As I noted late last year when Lilium failed, getting through certification in Europe or North America will cost about $1.5 billion per aircraft model due to all of the novelties inherent in the space. Volocopter was likely among the cheaper ones because it didn’t try to be anything except a helicopter, albeit a multirotor one, foregoing the substantial complexities and risks associated with transitioning to horizontal flight, typically with tilting rotors, wings or other components.

When I first looked at the space a few years ago it was clear that it was a safety nightmare. There’s a reason why the only aircraft in service that transition from vertical to horizontal flight are military. The mission profiles of military aircraft and military acceptance of risk are radically different than any civilian equivalent. The one I pointed at was the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, the tilt wing aircraft that kept falling out of the sky. It’s still doing it.

In August 2023, an MV-22B Osprey crashed on Melville Island, Australia, during a training exercise, killing three U.S. Marines. Later, in November 2023, a CV-22B Osprey crashed into the East China Sea near Japan, killing eight airmen after a catastrophic failure in the left-hand proprotor gearbox led to an unrecoverable loss of control. Most recently, in December 2024, the Pentagon grounded the entire Osprey fleet after a near-crash in New Mexico revealed widespread metal fatigue in critical components.

Meanwhile, the flagship jet VTOL, the F-35B Lightning II, keeps crashing, with ground personnel not removing engine covers being a leading cause. In November 2021, an F-35B launched from the HMS Queen Elizabeth crashed into the Mediterranean Sea due to a failure to remove an engine intake cover, with the pilot ejecting safely. Shortly after, in the same month, another F-35B from the USS Carl Vinson fell into the South China Sea following a mishap during landing, prompting a complex recovery operation to secure the sensitive technology. Most recently, in December 2022, an F-35B crashed during a test flight in Texas after losing stability during a hover, reportedly linked to a pre-flight inspection lapse.

Thankfully no one has been killed due to the F35B, unlike the Osprey. It’s worth noting that none of these crashes were because the planes were shot down and they weren’t even in war zones. VTOL is just hard.

As I noted a couple of months ago, Rolls Royce had already left the vertiport, shuttering their Advanced Air Mobility division because no one was buying their products. That left three big manufacturers with eVTOL initiatives, Airbus with its CityAirbus NextGen, Boeing with its Wisk Aero joint venture with Google founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk, and Embraer with its Eve Air Mobility subsidiary. But now there’s only one as Airbus has abandoned its CityBus program.

The first CityAirbus demonstrator, featuring four ducted fans and designed to carry four passengers, conducted its maiden unmanned flight in May 2019. Drawing on lessons from both this project and the earlier single-passenger Vahana prototype, Airbus unveiled the CityAirbus NextGen in September 2021. This updated version introduced a fixed-wing design with eight propellers, a range of 80 kilometers, and a cruising speed of 120 km/h. In March 2024, Airbus showcased the NextGen prototype at its facility in Donauwörth, Germany, ahead of its maiden flight, reaffirming its commitment to advancing urban air mobility solutions.

So much for commitment. Airbus has announced a pause in the development of its CityAirbus, citing concerns over the current maturity of battery technology. According to Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even, the decision follows a strategic review concluding that existing battery performance does not meet the requirements for the aircraft’s intended missions. The company plans to complete the ongoing flight-test campaign before halting further development at the end of 2025.

The lack of sufficient battery energy density, even with CATL’s new 500 Wh/kg batteries targeted at aviation, is exactly zero surprise to anyone paying attention. While battery energy density is increasing rapidly, it’s been obviously insufficient for the extreme requirements of passenger carrying rotorcraft over cities requiring 1000 foot above tallest building flights leading to extended high power climbing and descending drains. This was something that was clear years ago, and while I’m very battery optimistic, it was clear it wasn’t going to be resolved in under a decade.

This is especially problematic for eVTOLs as the descent phase would be when the battery would be in the lower half of charge and hence have both less power to deal with emergency situations and significantly reduce divert capabilities. This isn’t particularly a concern for fixed wing electric aircraft, by the way, because they aren’t trying to beat the air into submission, but to seduce it with very aerodynamic and typically high aspect ratio wings.

On that note, in late December 2024, China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) granted type certification to the RX4E under General Aviation Aircraft standards, marking the world’s first fully electric general aviation aircraft to receive such approval. Developed by the Liaoning General Aviation Academy, the RX4E is a four-seat, light propeller aircraft powered by a lithium battery system. The aircraft features a wingspan of 13.5 meters, a length of 8.4 meters, and a maximum takeoff weight of 1,260 kilograms. It is capable of a maximum flight time of 1.5 hours. By contrast, the two-seater Pipistrel is certified under Light Sport Aircraft standards.

This leaves the eHang customer Cuisinart as the sole certified electric rotorcraft. Like the Volocopter, it doesn’t twist, bend or fold, simplifying things considerably. It also has no pilot, being operated somewhat autonomously with ground oversight. It’s now commencing site seeing flights in Shanghai along the river it seems, so has managed to get out of rural fairground ride certification into urban fairground ride territory. No price point has been disclosed for the flights, but one assumes that they are catering exclusively to the wealthy, something Shanghai officials have less concerns about than Parisian ones.

There aren’t many players left. Boeing and Embraer still have their marketing programs, but with Rolls Royce and Airbus leaving the vertiport, I expect these two will fly their programs into the graveyard of airplanes soon.

Joby just managed to get another $84 million of good money following bad, so it will limp along for a while longer. It’s managed to get through the first three of five phases of certification, but it’s about to get tougher. The fourth and fifth stages of the FAA’s type certification process are the most time-consuming and expensive for aircraft manufacturers. The fourth stage involves extensive testing and compliance demonstrations, including flight tests and system evaluations under FAA oversight, to ensure the aircraft meets stringent safety and performance standards. The fifth stage finalizes operational approvals, requiring production processes, training programs, and operational manuals to align with regulatory requirements. These phases demand significant resources, specialized facilities, and close collaboration with regulators, with delays or modifications potentially adding substantial costs. Despite their complexity, these stages are critical to achieving certification and enabling commercial operations.

Meanwhile, in January 2025, industry experts indicated that the FAA is unlikely to issue type certifications for eVTOL aircraft before 2027 after a big meeting where FAA laid out its priorities. This projection stems from ongoing testing and data collection efforts, with critical evaluations expected to extend into 2026. Consequently, the results necessary for establishing comprehensive standards and regulations may not be available until mid-2027.

That means Joby has years more before it gets to the point where it might be in operation, assuming it actually gets through the certification process and any vertiports get built to meet the new FAA requirements for much bigger setbacks and much more restrictive flight paths. It’s well enough funded that it will probably last through 2025 at least, but it’s burning money for a non-existent business case, so it will join the rest of the firms eventually.