The viability of autonomous operations is one of the key bets being made by developers of eVTOL and eSTOL aircraft, with companies weighing the case for one of three core options: piloted, remotely piloted, and fully autonomous flights. Participants in a November 10 webinar organized by Revolution Aero heard from aircraft developers debating the merits of these options and concluded that only time will tell which offers the best business case as new aircraft approach type certification and service entry.
Airflow founder and CEO Marc Ausman made the case for gradualism, explaining his company’s plan to start with piloted operations before continuing on a course toward autonomy. “We want to put a piloted aircraft in the field first, build a brand, learn about manufacturing, and collect a lot of data so that we can move on to autonomous operations when the regulations support that,” he explained.
