eVTOLs are like helicopters, but with many advantages, such as the helicopter deficiencies that they correct as indicated below:
Helicopters have the advantage in payload capacity, range, and top speed so they’re not going anywhere anytime soon as you won’t see an eVTOL putting out a giant forest fire or carrying sick people from a remote location to a hospital.
There are tons of manufacturers racing to be the first from major players like Uber and AirBus to smaller startups. The earliest estimations for the first eVTOL available are 2025-2026.
We picked four startups, one from a unique country giving you an idea of what’s out there. Each entry requires a pilot for now, so, like helicopters making them a play toy for the rich, or upper middle class. Someday an average person will see its benefits, but not on its initial run.
Space travel was once reserved for scientists and specially trained individuals. That will soon change. Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Richard Branson of Virgin want to send tourists to near reaches of space to experience zero gravity. They created the companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic thinks the day of space tourism for the ultra-rich can be as close as 2026.
Then there’s Elon Musk, the perennial world’s richest man, or at least near the top, and undeniably the world’s biggest dreamer. He won’t settle for a mere tourist spot for the wealthy, just outside the earth’s atmosphere. He wants to colonize Mars with regular folk before he dies and he’s in his 50s. That’s why he sends regular citizens to space in his grand spectacles. How close are these megalomaniacs to their goals? Look at the recent history in the drop-down just below and find out. Each historical entry has a link to a video showcasing that milestone.
The flight crew consisted of a single pilot and two other astronauts winning the Ansari X Prize.
Funded by Paul Allen of Microsoft
The flight followed three previous unsuccessful flights that became the first step toward reaching Mars.
The flight crew consisted of two astronauts, Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, both of whom were veterans of the Space Shuttle program.
Virgin Galatic's Richard Branson went a step further setting a new record as he became the first founder of a spaceflight company to voyage to space in a vessel constructed by his very own enterprise. This feat adopted the definition of space set by the USAF/NASA, which places the boundary at a height above 80 kilometers.
The Karman line serves as the official edge of space as designated by the FAI, which is responsible for maintaining records for aeronautics and astronautics.
The flight followed three previous unsuccessful flights that became the first step toward reaching Mars.
People’s imaginations are vivid, with humanity dreaming of flying, going to space, horseless carriages, and now driverless carriages from the dawn of time. Just look at ancient stories through modern films and comics/cartoons from only a few generations ago. This trend and desire don’t diminish over time and is now at a fever pitch because everything we ever dreamed of seems within our reach within our current lifetimes.
How real is the thought of self-driving cars? Media outlets have us thinking that the reality is here, research tells us that autonomous cars have the potential to be safer and reduce traffic. The keyword from research is potential, hence it’s not fact, and the reality is that self-driving cars aren’t here and are at least a decade away from existence if not more. Yes, technology is a ‘limiting’ factor, but the biggest limiting factor is public perception which does mirror today’s reality. Autonomous driving is not safe except in the case of a fixed, unobstructed, safe route, like autonomous vehicles used in certain modes of mass transportation.
There is a reason why even Tesla won’t allow sleeping drivers in their ‘self-driving’ cars. Despite being among the leaders in self-driving cars, no car is fully autonomous yet. Let’s explain. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has designated an autonomous driving system on a scale of 0-5, of which 5 is fully autonomous driving. Today, even Tesla is only at level 3, with level 4 attainable in 2025.
Today every car manufacturer big enough is creating their autonomous systems or partnering with some startup. Every tech company from Uber, Sony, and Apple to Google is also dabbling in it and many cases very seriously. We have at least a decade to see who wins the race.
SAE (Autonomous driving scale), Tesla, All eVTOL information was taken from the vendors themselves, Wikipedia (Billionaire space race, with each timeline entry verified by a YouTube video that captured the live events)
All images are AI-generated using Fotor and are not meant to describe the subject matter they portray factually, but figuratively.
