A new wave of small electric aircraft, mostly with a capacity for between two and six passengers and a range of little more than 100 nm, has become the most hyped aspect of aviation’s precocious advanced air mobility (AAM) sector. The new eVTOL vehicles will vie for attention alongside much larger aircraft at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow, pressing the case for early-stage commercial operations set to launch as soon as 2025.
The pool of viable eVTOL contenders is shrinking and several of them still in contention continue an urgent search of funding needed to get them to market while investors apply pressure for returns on their capital. The situation has created pinch-points, according to Robin Riedel, who co-leads consulting group McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility. “With the AAM companies at the pre-revenue stage, many of them are too small for private equity [backers] and too big for early venture capital,” he told AIN.
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