Airport World - Vance Hilderman
Today, with green electric batteries, avionics manufacturers are pushing the envelope by developing small, energy-efficient one-to-four-passenger vehicles that can take off and land vertically without a long runway. In short, manufacturers are developing an “air taxi” that could theoretically replace your car one day.
And just as automobile manufacturers are exploring the possibilities of electric cars, which have now been commercially available for several years, the growing interest in VTOLs also centres on electrically powered VTOLs, or eVTOLs.
Getting eVTOLs off the ground, as it were, is a major priority in the future of avionics, and many experts believe the vehicles are only a couple years away from full-scale production. But since eVTOLs have vastly different regulatory expectations and safety requirements compared to traditional aircraft, the road hasn’t been particularly smooth.