eVTOL

Swiss startup Sirius Aviation has unveiled designs for the world’s first hydrogen-electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.  The jet, which kind of looks like Night Fury from How to Train Your Dragon, is billed to travel 1,851 km at speeds up to 520 km/h. That is four times as far as competitors like  German eVTOL startup Lilium are targeting using batteries. It will achieve these feats thanks to liquid hydrogen propulsion, which some consider the holy grail of fuels. The energy…

The Sirius Jet will fly up to 1,150 miles (1,851 km) at speeds up to 323 mph (520 km/h) on a clean liquid-hydrogen powertrain. It'll rise vertically off a pad thanks to a deflected vectored thrust system using 20 smallish electric ducted fans.It's the work of Swiss startup Sirius Aviation AG, which has apparently had a "team of 100+ engineers" beavering away at "intense R&D" on this project in the insanely picturesque lakeside town of Baar since 2021. Sirius says it's already started the certification process with the…

Hyundai's electric aircraft spinout has presented the eVTOL air taxi design it believes will "set the gold standard for Advanced Air Mobility." Supernal pulled the covers off its handsome S-A2 prototype at CES, built on a new airframe architecture. Supernal has some enormous advantages over most of the leaders in the eVTOL field; it's a subsidiary of an automotive colossus with massive revenue and well-established capabilities in huge volume manufacturing. But despite a 600-person team, it doesn't seem to be working at…

Nick Mokey / Digital Trends While its earthbound automotive divisions have been stewing up hydrogen from sewage and developing modular vans, Hyundai Motor Group’s (HMG) advanced air mobility company, Supernal, has had some lofty plans of its own. On Tuesday, the first day of CES 2024, Supernal unveiled the S-A2, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed to bypass traffic by shuttling commuters on jaunts of 20 to 40 miles in urban areas. “The SA-2 takes the best of an airplane, a safe smooth…

Following the debut of the production-intent design of its Helix light eVTOL, electric aviation startup Pivotal has begun selling the personal aircraft in the US. The Helix is unique in that it does not require FAA pilot certification, opening the skies to a larger pool of potential customers… if they have the money. Pivotal is a light eVTOL specialist based in Palo Alto, California, that gained notoriety in the industry on the wings of its BlackFly aircraft. We covered that vessel’s development…

I settle into the seat, check my controls, and lift off. The aircraft lifts off, not takes off. It’s like a helicopter at first, as the propellers start to spin. But unlike a chopper’s long floppy blades, these props look like an airplane’s but point straight up. Out of the windows, monitors show the Marina, California, airfield and the straw meadows and green hills beyond. It’s early September, and I’m among the first journalists to “pilot” a simulated version of Joby Aviation’s eVTOL, pronounced…

eVTOLs are one of those things that many groups announce their plans to create, but fail to produce in actual physical form. Such is not the case with Overair's Butterfly however, the just-unveiled prototype of which should soon begin flight testing.To recap our previous coverage, the Butterfly is an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft being developed by Overair, a California-based aeronautical startup. Overair's parent company, Karem Aircraft, has been involved in a number of vertical-lift-related US…

Advanced air mobility startup Overair is celebrating a significant milestone this morning, completing its first full-scale Butterfly eVTOL prototype ahead of flight testing in 2024. With its unique rotor design compared to many other eVTOLs, Overair’s electric aircraft looks to achieve commercial operations in multiple countries. Overair is an advanced air mobility (AAM) specialist based in Santa Ana, California, that was spun out of Karem Aircraft in 2020. In three short years, the Overair team…

German electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) plane startup Lilium has obtained authorization from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that will allow it far greater flexibility and range in developing its future battery-powered air taxi toward certification. Munich-based Lilium announced it had received the EASA’s Design Organization Approval for its continuing eVTOL activities, which it hopes to cap with certification of its air taxi and private electric jet aircraft in…

eVTOLs are generally able to carry two to five people, including a pilot.InterGlobe Enterprises (IGE), the promoter of India’s largest airline IndiGo, has tied up with a California-based electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle startup Archer Aviation to launch an electric air taxi service in India by 2026.What’s the plan and what impact will it have? Here’s an explainer.What is an eVTOL?Electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicles, more commonly known…