Generously backed start-ups boasting investors like Google co-founder Larry Page have spent billions over the past decade in their pursuit of safe, commercially viable flying taxi designs. The zero-emission vehicles, with designs that are typically more like large drones than miniature planes, are expected to be big business if and when they finally become a regular sight above cities, picking up and dropping off passengers on landing zones that will resemble helipads.
Over the past several months there has been clear signs the race to get commercial sky taxis into the air and urban and inter-city transport mix is heating up. Over the 5 months since February, a total of four flying taxi start-ups have announced plans to list on the stock market as public companies via reverse mergers with Spac shell companies.
The deals agreed with the Spacs value the four contenders at a combined $16 billion despite the fact none is particularly close to commercialisation, which will rely as much on governments and regulators as it will the technology itself. The four flying taxi start-ups poised to become public companies this year are Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace founded by Ovo Energy boss Stephen Fitzpatrick, German rival Lilium, California’s Joby Aviation and Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions, a subsidiary of Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer.
These are now serious companies, evidenced by Munich-based Lilium recently appointing former Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders as its chairman. Most have been working on flying taxi prototypes for between 5 and 11 years now and there are new market entrants includer Archer Aviation.
One indication of the new level of intensity in the competition between flying taxi challengers is the fact Wisk Aero, a joint venture between Google billionaire Page-backed Kitty Hawk and Boeing, started legal proceedings against Archer in April. The latter didn’t even have an office a year ago but already has a prototype aircraft design, Maker, and partnerships announced with the cities of Los Angeles and Miami. The stated ambition is to have Maker air taxis operating in the cities by 2024.
Wisk, however, contends that the speed at which Archer have developed their 12-rotor Maker flying taxi prototype, is not the result of impressive innovation and efficiency. Wisk argues that the Maker aircraft is almost identical to their own design, arrived at through 5 prototype iterations over a decade and over 1500 test flights.
The crux of Wisk’s accusation is the fact that around 20 of its former engineers have moved to Archer over the past year and a half. Wisk alleges some of those engineers downloaded thousands of files containing details on the start-up’s intellectual property. In that context, Wisk believes the similarity in designs, and how quickly Archer arrived at theirs, “could not have been a coincidence”.
Archer, for their part, call the legal action “baseless” and are contesting it. Wisk’s request of a California court to apply a preliminary injunction on Archer, preventing it from continuing to develop Maker while the case plays out in court, will go a long way to deciding the latter’s future.
Courtroom battles over intellectual property are a sign of what’s at stake for flying taxi start-ups and their investors.
The advantages of flying taxis and how they will change the urban and inter-city transport mix
The business model flying taxi start-ups are targeting is essentially bringing an alternative helicopter transport to the general public. Most are designed to lift off and land vertically, allowing for the same kind of flexibility as helicopters provide.
But private helicopters, or even just short helicopter rides, are extremely expensive. Helicopters are also very noisy and nobody living in a city wants hundreds of them regularly taking off and landing in their vicinity.
Flying taxis aim to offer all the traditional advantages of helicopters but, as all-electric vehicles, without the fuel costs or noise. The start-ups operating in the space are confident that within a few years of commercialisation, the cost of a flying taxi commute from an airport like Luton or Stanstead into central London won’t be too far removed from what an equivalent taxi trip would come in at.
The obstacles flying taxis still have to overcome
The single biggest barrier to commercial flying taxi services will be devising a new air traffic control system and regulations to take account of them.
Existing controls applying to travelling aircraft (of whatever type), demand notification of aircraft movements to air traffic control centres. These controlling authorities agree, or otherwise allocate, specific route, timing and altitude information and expect an instant affirmative response from the pilot. The requirement to follow instrument flying rules, or visual flying rules (low altitude flown by small craft when there is clear weather on route) has to be decided prior to departure.
That strict framework doesn’t really work for commercial flying taxi model, which will require aircraft to be able to pick up passengers at relatively short notice and be flexible to customer demand.
Exactly how that issue will be resolved remains to be seen, despite several city administrations around the world demonstrating enthusiasm for the idea of being able to add flying taxi services to their transport mix.
The competitors – a selection of the highest profile start-ups competing for the future flying taxi market
There are as many as 20 start-ups and subsidiaries of major aerospace companies in the flying taxis race. Some of the most notable competitors include:
Airbus Vahana
Airbus Vahana is a project form European aerospace giants Airbus, who are working on a self-piloted VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) flying taxi. Realistically it is likely to be years, if not decades, before AI-operated flying taxis are a commercial reality but Airbus Vahana would first launch a piloted service.
If, however, it does succeed in developing safe pilotless flight, it would slash costs which will be heavily influenced by the expense of training and employing pilots. Up to a hundred limited test flights have already been flown by the Vahana prototype but have consisted of little more than take off, hovering in the air for a short time and then a landing.
Kitty Hawk
Backed financially by Google billionaire Larry Page and with a partnership with Boeing, Kitty Hawk looked to be among the most serious competitors in the flying taxi space. However, difficulties have recently been encountered.
In 2020 the start-up gave up work on its original prototype and axed most of the team that had been working on it. Damon Vander Lind, the key engineer at the company, was also moved out in May after coming into conflict with CEO Sebastian Thrun and Page.
However, the company recently acquired 3D Robotics, the enterprise drone software company, and has started work on a new prototype in partnership with Boeing.
Lilium
The German start-up Lilium has agreed a Spac merger that will see the company go public this year at an initial valuation of a little over $3 billion. Arguably the furthest ahead of all of the companies in the flying taxi space, Lilium’s 7-Seater Lilium Jet is an electric vertical take-off and landing jet.
Commercial operations are currently planned for 2024 and a launch network in Florida planned, with up to 14 vertiport development sites confirmed, to be built and operated by Lilium’s infrastructure partners.
Joby Aviation
One of the oldest start-ups working on flying taxis, Joby Aviation has been given some rocket fuel in the shape of a $100 million investment round backed by the likes of Toyota and Intel. Joby has also acquired Uber Elevate, the ride-hailing giant’s flying taxi business.
The VTOL developed by the company currently has a range of up to 150 miles and can travel at up to 200 mph, seating up to 5 people including the pilot.
Vertical Aerospace
Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace is the British horse in the flying taxi race. The company will go public later this year and the reverse merger Spac deal that will make that possible has been committed to by Microsoft, American Airlines, Avolon, Honeywell and Rolls-Royce.
Three customers have already made advanced orders for VA’s VA-X4 electric vertical take-off aircraft subject to the achievement of certain goals and other conditions. Avolon wants to pre-order up to 310 of the eVTOLs, with an option for another 190. American Airlines has agreed to take delivery of 250, with an option for 100 more. And Virgin Atlantic secures a purchase option on up to 150 of the aircraft. Vertical Aerospace estimates the value of the pre-orders at up to 4 billion US dollars.