Startups Joby Aviation and Volocopter, last Sunday, they gave the public a demonstration of what the future of aviation could look like. Notably, both companies performed short demonstration flights of their electric planes in the city of New York. On the occasion, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would electrify two of the three heliports located in Manhattan: Downtown Manhattan Heliport and East 34th street. Beta Technologies, on the other hand, a company that is developing an electric plane, showed its interoperable aircraft charging technology at the event.
This event was very important for the so-called developers of “electric vertical take-off and landing” (eVTOL), which will likely require heavy public investment to get their commercial air taxi service off the ground by 2025. After all, some of these investments have already started to materialize: in September Joby announced that he would build his new airplane factory in DaytonOhio, in a deal “bolstered” by more than $325 million in state incentives and benefits.
Regardless, the eVTOL industry is benefiting from some major tailwinds, most notably climate change commitments. In fact, several cities, including New York, they are trying to reduce carbon emissions and therefore switch to clean energy. In this sense, New York City’s goal is to decrease, by 2050emissions by 80% compared to the 2005 reference level – and the electrification of the two heliports is an important part of the realization of this path.
