How are AAM developers positioning for business aviation market

Does advanced air mobility (AAM) count as business aviation, or is it something else entirely?

More than a decade after the first electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) developers and designs emerged into the public consciousness, the sector’s dozen or so frontrunners seem divided over whether to embrace the legacy business aviation community, judging by how many of them regularly turn up at established events such as NBAA BACE.

Two eVTOL start-ups – Joby Aviation and Lilium – are at the Las Vegas Convention Center for this week’s BACE show, joined by Electra, which is behind a short take-off and landing (STOL), hybrid-electric concept. All three are part of the Emerging Tech Pavilion. However, Archer, Supernal, Vertical Aerospace, Volocopter, and Wisk – together with the likes of electric, fixed-wing pioneers Eviation and VoltAero – are among the notable absentees, from the exhibition floor at least.

Germany’s Lilium is making its US show debut with its yet-to-be-certificated four-passenger Lilium Jet, and recently announced Texas-based brokerage and management company EMCJET as its first stateside private sales dealer. The Munich-based company’s vice-president of commercial for the Americas, Matt Broffman, says attendance this week makes sense.

“The traditional business aviation segment is a logical place for us to focus our initial commercial strategy because the infrastructure already exists with FBOs and charter operators that are eager for premium and sustainable aircraft,” he says. “We have designed an aircraft that can, on day one, replace existing helicopter and some regional jet routes while maintaining the level of comfort and luxury that business aviation customers are accustomed to.”

US-based Joby is featuring a full-scale mock-up of its eVTOL design in the conference hall. “We’re excited to showcase the future of sustainable flight at BACE and highlight the crucial role business and general aviation will play as we enter this new era of aviation,” says head of government policy, Greg Bowles. “From exploring the full-scale mock-up of our aircraft to seeing the innovative components that power it, attendees will get a glimpse of how we’re redefining air travel.”

Manassas, Virginia-based Electra is displaying what it calls its “ultra-short” hybrid-electric aircraft, which it claims will be capable of carrying nine passengers for 330nm (611km) and taking off and landing on 46m (150ft) runways. It describes the category in which it will compete as “direct aviation – seamless and convenient travel that makes new connections possible by bringing air travel closer to where people live”.

“Electra is excited to showcase this aircraft at NBAA BACE so that the business aviation community can see an aircraft built for the electric future,” says Marc Ausman, chief product officer. “In addition to the existing airport to airport routes, there are lots of new use cases to support business productivity for both passenger and cargo operations.”

According to NBAA president and chief executive Ed Bolen, AAM is “quickly moving from concept to reality” and this year’s show is the “pre-eminent event to see how this game-changing, on-demand form of transportation will have implications for business aviation and beyond”.

NOT ON PARADE

However, what of the no-shows, perhaps the most noticeable of which is Volocopter, which made headlines at last year’s BACE by making a 6min flight with its 2X prototype at the static display at Henderson Executive Airport? At the time, the Bruchsal-based company had planned to have its two-seat VoloCity air taxi certificated in Europe by early 2024, ahead of a planned launch of commercial operations at the Paris Olympic Games that July.

The fact no passenger flights took place – the firm did manage a brief demonstration sortie at the Palace of Versailles – is an indication of the over-ambitious service entry dates promised by many AAM developers, overlooking the massive hurdle of convincing regulators of the safety of an entirely new category of aircraft. So far, only EHang of China has been successful in securing a type certificate for an eVTOL, in this case the unpiloted EH216-S – but only from the Chinese authorities.

Financial pressures too may be playing a part in decisions not to exhibit at major industry shows. Despite the promise of positive press coverage and increasing brand awareness in an influential sector, they are expensive, and often mean removing test aircraft and pilots at a crucial stage in the certification campaign.

Several AAM developers are at a critical juncture when it comes to cash flow. After inspiring early backers and ticking along for years in concept development mode without the need to generate revenues, start-ups are discovering that moving to the certification and manufacturing phase – with production lines to be established and additional staff and suppliers paid – requires a fresh injection of hundreds of millions of dollars just when existing investors may be losing patience.

Earlier this year, Volocopter chief executive Dirk Hoke admitted that insolvency was a possibility for the company after an expected €100 million ($110 million) loan did not materialise. Later, the company said it had received a lifeline from existing shareholders, without disclosing how much. Hoke, a former head of Airbus’s defence business, is stepping down as chief executive in February.

In September, Bristol, UK-based Vertical, which has recently been conducting tethered flight tests of its VX4 prototype, said it needed to secure $25 million from founder Stephen Fitzpatrick to ensure it had enough cash to operate as a going concern into the second half of next year. The German government meanwhile has just denied Lilium a €50 million state loan guarantee, part of a planned €100 million package aimed at supporting its immediate financial stability.

Joby and Archer are both quoted on the New York Stock Exchange, although their stock price has been in decline since the start of the year – Archer’s more than that of Joby, which has benefited from interest in its design from the US military and the announcement in early October by automotive giant Toyota that it would invest an additional $500 million in the company.

Developers that are part of a large corporation – such as Supernal, which is owned by South Korea’s Hyundai, Boeing unit Wisk, and Embraer semi-spin off Eve – have the advantage of a deep-pocketed parent to guarantee loans and can also draw on the wider resources and purchasing heft of their owner. However, parental indulgence only goes so far and all these offshoots will need to be raising revenues and standing on their own feet soon.

Finances aside, all the AAM companies exhibiting in Las Vegas this week have announced major milestones in the past few months as they progress towards certification. Joby confirmed in May that it was transitioning to a production-focused phase of development and hoped to have its battery-powered eVTOL design in service next year. In July, it completed a flight of an aircraft fuelled by liquid hydrogen.

Lilium said on 1 October that it had completed the first systems power-on with the Lilium Jet and planned to fly the aircraft with a pilot on board in early 2025. With two production conforming jets currently on the assembly line, the company says six test aircraft will be used in the certification effort, with service entry targeted for 2026.

While NBAA BACE marks the Lilium Jet’s first show appearance on this side of the Atlantic, the aircraft’s actual US debut came in late September at an event staged by its distributor EMCJET at the Galaxy FBO at Houston Hobby airport. EMJET says it has “secured production slots” that should lead to a round of customer deliveries in 2026.

Lilium has a policy of using distributors to champion its products to retail customers. In the UK, Oxford-based aircraft management firm Volare hopes to tap ‘Cotswolds set’ entrepreneurs to buy Lilium Jets outright or on shared-ownership, with Volare providing pilots. Typical clients might regularly charter helicopters and own luxury cars, says Volare. For them, the jet will deliver not just convenience, but one-upmanship in a social stratum obsessed with prestige brands.

In August, Electra continued the trend among several AAM start-ups of securing a leader with an impressive track record in conventional aerospace manufacturing. Former Boeing head of strategy Marc Allen took over as the company’s chief executive in late August.

Rather than use rotating propellers to generate vertical lift and forward propulsion, as most eVTOL developers have done, Electra’s fixed-wing aircraft deploys eight propellors on each wing to direct air over the wing and generate additional lift. This “blown-lift” feature, says the company, gives the aircraft its unique short take-off and landing capabilities. Electra flew its EL-2 Goldfinch demonstrator for the first time in November 2023.

One other would-be AAM pioneer is featuring at NBAA BACE, but with a conventional aircraft. Blade Air Mobility is once again offering delegates the option to fly by helicopter between the convention centre and the static display at Henderson Executive Airport, something it has been doing since 2021.

New York-based Blade is not an operator – the helicopter here is flown by local firm Orbic Air – but rather a ride-share platform, or broker. It uses conventional rotorcraft on routes such as downtown Manhattan to JFK airport only as an interim measure before it transitions to an all-electric aircraft network. It sees this week as a branding exercise to promote its vision of affordable and sustainable urban air mobility, which it believes will eventually be provided by unmanned aircraft.