Aircraft

Following its maiden flight toward the end of 2020, and flying city-to-city for the first time in June of last year, Klein Vision's AirCar flying car has now been granted a Certificate of Airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority.

Joby Aviation has continued expanding the envelope on its S4 electric air taxi prototypes, and on Friday the California company registered what it believes is the fastest eVTOL test flight in history, hitting a true airspeed of 205 mph (330 km/h).

One of the strangest eVTOL designs we've seen is now officially off the ground. The Zeva Zero is a tail-sitting, one-person, electric flying saucer that promises to be cheap, fast, efficient and about as crazy an air taxi ride as we can imagine.

Bellwether has begun flight-testing its impossibly sexy Volar eVTOL flying supercar design at half scale, but the video appears to confirm our fears: all style with little substance, it appears to be a wobbly quadcopter drone with a flashy bodykit.

Pierpaolo Lazzarini is no stranger to pushing the envelope when it comes to design concepts. His latest effort, the Air Yacht, is designed to travel the sea or the skies in style, buoyed by twin helium-filled airships.

Having already carried out flights of its Jet Suit in separate rescue and military demonstrations, UK company Gravity Industries has combined the two as part of a NATO Mountain Warfare Rescue Exercise.

American eVTOL pioneer Joby Aviation is accelerating its path to FAA type certification, today unveiling a second pre-production prototype that's already approved to join the company's flight test program, and is due to fly later this month.

Horizon Aeronautics is prototyping an eVTOL hovercycle concept that uses a complex and interesting split-swashplate "Blainjett" variable pitch rotor system that only exposes half of each fan. Very odd, but Horizon says it's highly efficient.

Bellwether Industries has flown a half-scale prototype of its stunning Volar eVTOL, and is preparing to release footage. It's the most brazenly futuristic design we've ever seen, a flying hypercar for a utopia even sci-fi doesn't dare dream up.

British company Hill Helicopters is stirring up the industry with a gorgeous, high-tech, next-gen, luxury light helicopter that's already grabbed more than a 51% market share despite the fact that it's never turned a rotor as a full-scale prototype.

As a counterpoint to our typically bullish eVTOL coverage, here's a bear's take. This aviation CEO has dismissed eVTOL air taxis as a threat, saying they'll be just as expensive as helis but far less capable, and they'll struggle in the real world.

Palo Alto startup Archer has started flight tests with its autonomous, two-seat Maker demonstration aircraft, fulfilling a promise it made when it popped out of stealth mode 18 months ago to start demo flights by the end of 2021.