VTOL

With the ability to carry up to 250 kg of payload at speeds up to 80 km/h, the 12-rotor Seraph is Britain's leading electric VTOL air taxi candidate. Vertical Aerospace has released video of this chunky bird in flight.

Six months after revealing its five-seat electric VTOL aircraft, German startup Lilium has shown it flying at speeds over 100 km/h (62 mph), and moving between VTOL and winged flight, in a new video.

In Singapore for Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress, Volocopter has shown off a first full-scale prototype of what it calls a VoloPort, the terminal for the flying taxi service it envisions for city centers of the future.

China's MMC UAV launched a new hydrogen-powered VTOL drone at InterGEO 2019 in Germany last week, that has a flight time of up to 15 hours.

Automotive design legend Frank Stephenson speaks about biomimicry and the Lilium project in part two of our interview.

Bell has joined the cargo drone space with its APT 70, which has just nailed its first autonomous test flight.

One of the best ways to extend the range of a VTOL aircraft is to add wings for horizontal flight, and Drone Volt's Heliplane brings this kind of thinking to the industrial drone market, offering long flight endurance times, 1.6-kg (3.5-lb) payload capacity and VTOL/hover capabilities.

Japanese electronics giant NEC has been working with a company called Cartivator to design, build and test VTOL air taxi concepts. Now the two companies have demonstrated a multi-seat manned multicopter, a step toward a flying car future Japan believes will arrive around 2030.

​​With the backing of Google co-founder Larry Page, Kitty Hawk already has some noteworthy names attached to its flying taxi endeavors. And it's now found another in heavyweight Boeing, with the industry veteran teaming up with its fresh-faced counterpart to accelerate the age of electric aviation.

​VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) drones already have some advantages over multicopters and fixed-wing drones, but could they offer even better functionality? The designers of the ROTORwing seem to think so, as their aircraft's wings actually double as its rotor blades.

​Lately we've been seeing an increasing number of VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) drones, that combine the best qualities of fixed-wing aircraft and quadcopters. So, what do you do if you already manufacture a standard fixed-wing model? In the case of FlyTech, you offer a VTOL upgrade module.

​While we've seen some "flying cars" that require a runway, there's no doubt that what most people really want is a vehicle that takes off and lands more like a helicopter. Well, the Aska may be the answer … when and if it reaches production.