Will China Beat the USA to Commercial eVTOL Services?

Personal air mobility is a concept as old as the helicopter itself. Bell Aircraft, in fact, promoted early Bell helicopter prototypes as personal air vehicles, suggesting a future with a helicopter in every driveway.

That never happened, but the development of lightweight batteries and electric motors that allow distributed lift through multiple rotors has created a new gold rush as small garage startups—and major players like Boeing and Airbus—race to develop electric eVTOL passenger-carrying vehicles.

The goal is for autonomy, but it’s now widely believed that piloted vehicles will be the first in the air, and the Chinese want to pioneer this new form of aviation. Will they? And just as significantly, will eVTOL travel really revolutionize intracity transport?

* * *

Want to watch this podcast as a video? End of the Line is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as This Week in Engineering, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.