Air Taxis

Aura Aerospace has proposed a crazy new take on advanced air mobility. The five-seat Ranger looks like Darth Vader's shuttle when it's folded up, but it promises to fly further than any normal airliner, with roof-to-roof vertical takeoff and landing.

There are very few full-size aircraft capable of transitioning between vertical takeoff and landing and wing-borne horizontal cruise flight, so it's a big deal when a company manages the feat, as Archer has now claimed. But the video is a shocker.

Archer is targeting FAA certification by the end of 2024, and its first air taxi flights in 2025. With its Maker prototype logging successful test flights, the company has now unveiled Midnight, the four-passenger aircraft it'll push toward production.

Korean startup Plana Aero, founded by the guy that led Hyundai/Supernal's early eVTOL program, has begun work on a new long-range, hybrid-electric VTOL air taxi that'll carry up to seven people about 350 miles at speeds up to 217 mph.

Chinese electric vehicle-maker XPeng has been developing a teardrop-shaped eVTOL to serve as a flying taxi of the future, and has just flown it in public for the first time at Skydive Dubai in front of 150 onlookers.

Wisk Aero has bumped up the passenger-carrying capacity of its upcoming air taxi from two to four, and none of those will be a pilot. The company intends to take its 6th-gen autonomous eVTOL to market, and will now be seeking FAA type certification.

German eVTOL company Lilium has released test flight video of its stunning Phoenix 2 air taxi prototype making full transitions from vertical takeoff, to horizontal cruise flight, some turning maneuvers and a vertical landing – with full camera audio.

With plans to introduce an air taxi service at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, SkyDrive has announced that lessons learned from the development of its sporty SD-03 single-seat prototype have informed the design of a new two-seater SD-05 eVTOL.

The team behind the ADIFO omnidirectional, supersonic flying saucer has designed and prototyped an interesting and unique eVTOL design with an extraordinarily quick and simple method of transitioning between vertical and horizontal flight modes.

UK company Vertical Aerospace has celebrated the first flight of its spectacular full-scale VX4 eVTOL air taxi prototype, demonstrating its faith in the design by taking the unusual step of putting a pilot on board. It's due to enter service in 2025.

Zeva is moving to prototype a second-generation version of its radically different take on eVTOL flight. The Z2 remains a tail-sitting flying saucer that flies a single person head-first at high speeds, but the new model makes some practical changes.

While pilots often use an autopilot at high altitudes, they typically switch to manual control when entering crowded lower airspaces. However, what if the plane has no pilot? Well, a new AI autopilot system for busy airspaces may be the answer.