Manned multirotors

Hot on the heels of Lilium's Phoenix 2 demonstrator, Israel's Air has released video footage of its two-seat personal eVTOL prototype transitioning to cruise flight, marking the start of the company's bid for FAA certification.

American company Ryse Aerotech has released video of its first manned flight test, undertaken back in June. The Recon eVTOL is pitched as a buy 'n' fly ultralight aircraft that farmers and ranchers can put to immediate use without a pilot's license.

Cleared for airworthiness, Air's first full-scale eVTOL prototype has started flight testing. The Air One is an attractive two-seat manned multicopter with wings, designed for personal ownership and fun flight dynamics, with a US$150,000 price tag.

LEO Flight, formerly known as Urban eVTOL, has presented a manned alpha prototype for its LEO Coupe, a flying hypercar the company says will eventually be capable of carrying three people at speeds up to 250 mph, complete with "dynamic" handling.

Walk out into your back yard, jump into a next-generation electric VTOL flying machine, lift off and soar your way to the office helipad: that's the dream of personal eVTOL ownership, and Jetson co-founder Tomasz Patan has lived it, in a new video.

Last week, ALI Technologies briefly took to the skies above the Fuji Speedway racetrack for the launch of the slick-looking Xturismo Limited Edition hoverbike, which is now up for order with deliveries expected to follow in the first half of 2022.

Last month, we reported on astonishing first flight footage from the Copterpack, an Australian electric personal flight device. Now, eagle-eyed pixel peepers have scrutinized the video and presented evidence that a tether wire has been edited out.

Rotor X plans to break into the air taxi market with an aircraft that's "dramatically more efficient and less expensive than all other eVTOL concepts being proposed or developed today" – and it's also one of the few eVTOLs capable of autorotation.

Montreal's Alexandru Duru first flew his electric multirotor hoverboard back in 2015, and quickly set a Guinness World Record for distance. Now this levitating madman is working to commercialize it for sale, while performing stunt shows on the side.

A green alternative to the humble kerosene-burning jetpack? Video shows an Australian man rising high off the ground using a two-rotor electric personal flight device he calls the Copterpack. It's bulky, but looks surprisingly stable and controllable.

Following a Kickstarter in 2017 to gauge interest in an electric flying car racing series, and an international public debut in 2019, Alauda Aeronautics has now unveiled a full-sized, fully functioning electric flying racing car – the Airspeeder Mk3.

A feasibility study modeled on the VoloCity multirotor electric air taxi has concluded that electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft would benefit emergency air rescue services. Now the project is looking to begin operational testing in 2023.