83PROGRESSEHang
184
Single-passenger eVTOL
from China. Said to be
world’s first passenger
drone. More than 1,000
test flights conducted in
last three years at heights
up to 1,000 feet. Rated
payload: 220 pounds.
Charge time: 1 hour.Opener
BlackFly
Palo Alto, California-based
startup funded by Google
co-founder Larry Page.
Single-seat eVTOL. Fixed
tandem wings, joystick
fly-by-wire controls, capable
of fully autonomous flight.
Cruising speed: 62 mph.
Range: 25 miles. Predicted
cost when in full production:
the price of an SUV.Lilium
Jet
World’s first “electric jet”
VTOL, from Gilching,
Germany. Being developed
under the auspices of
the European Space
Agency. Five-seater with
rechargeable ducted-fan
engines (435 hp), fly-
by-wire joystick control
(requires sport pilot’s
license). Expected cruising
speed: 250 mph. Since
2018, Frank Stephenson
(former design director for
McLaren) has been head
of product design.Moller
SkyCar
Forty years in develop-
ment, an estimated $150
million of investor money
spent, and still not one
of Canadian engineer
Paul Moller’s prototypes
has ever flown in free,
untethered flight.The bigger speed bump in the
sky might actually be philosophical.
There’s a clip from “The Joe Rogan
Experience” podcast in which famed
astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson
wonders why anyone would want
a flying car in the first place. In the
clip, Tyson argues we already have
flying cars. “They’re called helicopters.
They’re noisy. They have to create a
downward thrust of air equal to its
own weight. That’s what a flying car
is gonna have to do. They completely
disrupt the terrain wherever they fly.
You don’t want a flying car. You want to
travel in the third dimension. We already have that. They’re called tunnels.
They’re called bridges. ... Too many cars? You can’t move? Let’s build a
subway.” Tyson also points to the coming wave of automated cars. “If you
have automated cars, you don’t need flying cars.”
Tyson ends with a dark-humored warning: “You get some testosterone-
infused guy who doesn’t want to let you get ahead of him, and he tries to
bump you, then you break the propeller and you both fall out of the sky.” He
looks at Rogan, and they almost say it aloud together: “Sky rage.”
Yes, our flying-car future may indeed be “just around the corner.” Or, quite
possibly, given the enormous safety and regulation issues still to overcome,
the best-case predictions of today are still wildly optimistic. Bottom line:
Your Uber Air is probably on its way. Just don’t be surprised if it’s late. AM
THIS WAY UP
The diverse
field of PAV
players
includes
(from top)
Opener’s
BlackFly, the
electric Jet
from Lilium,
and Paul
Moller’s racy
but unproven
SkyCar.