eVTOL aircraft could take flight by the end of the decade – but the industry still has significant barriers to overcome to ensure advanced air mobility becomes a reality. William Hallowell navigates the challenges ahead for the eVTOL sector.
Advanced air mobility (AAM) is on the horizon, and the future of flight appears clear with the emergence of eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft. Once, the sort of concept one might find in the land of science-fiction, according to the UK government, eVTOLs are now poised to represent a new era of aviation.
From air charter to commercial offerings, the potential of this new generation of aircraft is huge. Yet, there are still many challenges ahead and, given the timescale to have eVTOLs taking flight by the end of the decade, cross-industry collaboration will prove vital. This means involving stakeholders at all levels, including the manufacturers, airports, fixed base operators (FBOs), regulators and governments.
In March, the UK government set out its plan with the Civil Aviation Authority to have flying taxis in regular service as soon as 2028 – an ambitious timescale, industry players have agreed. But, as industry leaders suggested at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Pilotless Summit last month, the industry isn’t ready to meet this target.
Technological challenges
There are still numerous technological advancements that need to be made by the end of the decade to ensure this new era of aviation becomes a reality. According to Joshua Ng, director of Alton Aviation Consultancy: “The principles of vertical and horizontal flight are not unknown. However, putting together the technology that is practical and usable is more challenging.
“There are several key technology challenges that eVTOL manufacturers need to overcome, including electrical propulsion systems, for safety and sustainability, battery capacity, to extend the vehicle range and performance characteristics, flight controls, specifically in transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight and vice versa, and vehicle health monitoring, for safety and more regular operations.”
Andrew Schmertz, CEO of the US air charter company Hopscotch Air, agrees that finding the solutions to prolonging battery life is one of the most difficult technological barriers for eVTOL manufacturers in order to travel longer distances.
Speaking on The Aviation Briefing podcast, he explains: “If you can’t get the batteries to the point that they can work for this business, everything else falls apart – so [the manufacturers] have to solve the battery issue. I’m not an engineer, but there’s something called Moore’s Law, which is the rate of battery improvement over each year and that tends to be static historically.
“Now companies like Joby and Archer, which are two of the largest eVTOL manufacturers in the United States, say they can overcome that problem and are willing to do so … That is going to be the biggest challenge to getting these machines up and running …
“They’re talking about urban air mobility [UAM], they’re talking about flying from the Hudson River in New York City to the East River in New York City – that’s about a two mile distance. I don’t think people are going to be taking aircraft for those trips [and] I don’t think New Yorkers are going to accept all these machines flying over their heads.”
Schmertz adds that the “real challenge” is getting people to fly longer distances, for example, from New York to Washington – but that if they do that, eVTOL aircraft will need the power to take them on a return journey without having to recharge the battery.
Ground infrastructure and electrification
Yet, eVTOL operations are prevented by lack of infrastructure. Whilst there is much discussion amongst industry players about the merits of advanced and urban air mobility, there is still nowhere for the aircraft to land. The construction of vertiports in cities will prove vital for UAM and, as Schmertz suggests it should, the focus of eVTOL flight may shift to travelling longer distances. In this case, can airports offer an infrastructure solution for AAM?
Aviation consultant, Gokul Krishna Srinivasan, argues airports aren’t ready for a new generation of aviation. Indeed, he says airports and airport authorities are actively not engaging in the eVTOL space, explaining that it’s going to be some time before the industry sees “newer technologies being integrated with legacy airport systems”.
He says: “Pragmatically speaking, I don’t think airports, airport authorities or aerodrome managers are anywhere near close to being able to accept advanced air mobility vehicles to operate in their environment. Are airports ready to manage these operations? They’re not even close because they don’t want these systems anywhere close to their infrastructure.”
Ng outlines, however, that the initial deployment of eVTOLs will be focused around “existing infrastructure like heliports and airports [that] can be repurposed or upgraded” to support the aircraft, and that the wider industry’s electrification drive will have a significant impact on infrastructure developments.
Highlighting aviation’s “slow reaction” to the changing needs of ground operations, Ng says: “As the concept of operations are being built from the ground up, the eVTOL industry is able to create standards that allow the 100 per cent electrification of the industry. Being able to do so absolves the industry from having to contend with the transition of existing equipment into their electric versions, and the operational complications that it may bring.”
The consultant adds that the charging infrastructure should be easier to manage from a cost and power draw perspective, given the footprint for eVTOL deployment will be confined to vertiports.
Certification and regulation
Perhaps the most important barrier to overcome, though, is regulatory approval. Without this aspect, eVTOL aircraft face being grounded – but certification is a difficult area to navigate. eVTOLs are new, and just how they will be flown in practice is not yet known. According to James Bell, innovation strategy lead at the UK Civil Aviation Authority: “If there isn’t a regulatory framework that enables [the sector], it just won’t become a reality.”
There are already differences of opinion over where exactly they can and will operate, and flying from point A to B in the same city, where distances may only reach a few miles, seems far more complex than longer routes operated from East to West Coast of the United States, as Schmertz points out. And, whether such a concept will be accepted by the general public is another barrier eVTOLs face, in addition to the infrastructure requirements cities will need to provide.
Taking the US eVTOL space as an example, Schmertz says: “The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] is throwing a lot of resources at this. There’s a lot of criticism that they’re throwing too many resources at it and ignoring the rest of the industry that is actually in business, and flying with the public right now.
“But there are regulatory questions, from a technical standpoint, about how the aircraft are going to be certified, what the pilot certification is going to be and then the business model [in terms of] what regulation we are going to operate under. Or do we have to write a whole new bunch of regulations?
“Right now, the concept is that [eVTOLs are] going to fit into the powered lift regulations. That’s what the FAA is thinking right now: the Part 135, which is the United States air charter regulation, that or small aircraft, commuter regulation.”
Fitting eVTOL aircraft into existing regulations will “speed up” certification, according to Schmertz, but if aviation authorities need to write new regulations, the FAA will “take forever” to do this and “Congress will probably have to get behind something”. He adds that if regulators can address these problems, the timescale for eVTOL flight can be advanced more rapidly for air charter and commercial use – then comes the question of where they’ll be able to operate and what infrastructure challenges still exist.
However, to establish a regulatory framework for these aircraft, regulators must ensure that safety and security of eVTOL operations is “paramount” to minimise the likelihood of adverse incidents that could reduce the chance of adoption for eVTOLs, Ng adds.
Airports as hubs
But will certification shift stakeholders’ attitudes to look upon the aircraft more favourably? As Srinivasan highlights, airports are reluctant to commit investment to the eVTOL space because it is uncertain and there are limited use cases. He explains: “The simple reason is that a single incident, something like a hard landing by an advanced air mobility vehicle, might cause a lot of PR issues for the airport and flight delays – we’re talking millions of [dollars] of damage that might be cost commercially.”
Yet, airports could prove to be important sandboxes for innovation and advancements in this field. According to Minna Kreivi, an independent aviation consultant: “From an infrastructure point of view, I see business potential for smaller airports who need more business. This could be an opportunity for them.
“There are a few airports in Finland that are privately-owned and are the first ones saying they want to be the first AAM players in Finland. But they have the problem that there is not a viable business case.” In spite of airports’ scepticism then, there are stakeholders who see the potential for eVTOL aircraft in the future of flight.
eVTOLs by 2030?
The industry’s roadmap to deliver eVTOL flight by the end of the decade is not an impossible feat. Though, whether air charter and commercial services can be made a reality by 2030 is uncertain. Innovation continues to lead the sector in the aircraft OEM space, but surely must go further to support infrastructure needs and a viable regulatory framework, amongst wider challenges like public acceptance, to make clear that eVTOL aircraft are not a fad.
What seems clear is that, even amongst the key players, there is little consensus over just how realistic the timescale is. Perhaps it is worth questioning whether eVTOL flight can become a reality without increased cross-sector collaboration in what could be an industry-changing development in aviation?