The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), the non-profit organisation working to advance vertical flight, has announced that the number of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concepts being tracked in its World eVTOL Aircraft Directory has now exceeded 700 designs from nearly 350 companies and innovators worldwide.
In a press release the VFS reports “The World eVTOL Aircraft Directory is divided up into propulsion system approaches, and currently includes 235 concepts using various vectored thrust approaches, 124 “lift + cruise” configurations, 195 “wingless (multicopter)” concepts, 103 designs for hover bikes and personal flying devices and 47 electric rotorcraft. The concepts are from 347 entities in 48 countries. The most prolific countries of origin are the US (124 entities), UK (24), China (21), Germany (19) and Canada (17), accounting for nearly 60% of all design entities.”
Further more the VFS says “Last year also saw a doubling of the amount of funding being invested in eVTOL aircraft developers. VFS had estimated USD 4.5 billion of investments in eVTOL companies in 2010–2020. However, last year saw several additional developers go public and/or attract sizeable private investments, bringing the total to more than USD 10 billion. This spike in investment of several leading eVTOL companies that went public in 2021 — namely Archer Aviation, Eve Air Mobility, Joby Aviation, Lilium and Vertical Aerospace — has given new momentum to the goal of beginning operations of eVTOL aircraft around the world over the coming few years.”
For more information
https://vtol.org/news/press-release-vfs-electric-vtol-directory-hits-700-concepts
(Image: Umiles)