Won't some versions of these EVTOL machines involve an actual pilot...at least for some period of time ?

And how many EVTOL pilots are there so far ? Probably more to come.

Latest from Wisk

• Wisk becomes first eVTOL air taxi company to conduct public flights in Los Angeles County, at Long Beach Airport, demonstrating the safety and reality of autonomous passenger flight

https://wisk.aero/news/press-release/wisk-flies-in-la/

Not sure having flights 'at' Long Beach airport is going to attract a lot of passengers.

I can't imagine getting on that autonomous thing in the infancy of the technology. Nope...

​​​​​​​It was an air show demonstration

So even a US start-up airline is getting into the eVTOL thing ? Bold move:

https://worldairlinenews.com/2023/11...south-florida/

So where are these air-mobility flights going to land? You can't just hail a helicopter and have it land in the street. My brother has a house on Pine Lake in Sammamish, Washington. A neighbor wanted to use his helicopter to commute to work; neighbors were not happy that a whirlybird would be flying over for the benefit on one person. Result? VERY limited flights and times. How are these 'urban air mobility' flights expecting to pick up and drop off passengers? One can't simply drop from the skies and offload/upload passengers where ever one wants to..... This is not like a taxi or an uber.

My recollection is that helicopter transport to airport(s) from atop high rise buildings in New York proved not to be a good solution. How is this different?

edited to add: One crash and they will be gone.

Ground transport on short distances will always be quieter, more energy efficient, safer, support higher people count and are more flexible on pick and drop locations than any air transport.
Air transport need to accelerate airmass down to support the weight of the craft. That is never real quiet for crafts with the necessary mass to transport people.
Add weather and safety then you know where the equation leans to.

Heck if I know. I don't understand any of this. Maybe they'll build eVTOLports ?

That's the plan - here’s the Beta Technologies version…

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9c36112af.jpeg
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Doesn't seem to make sense to make people climb a ladder to board from a rooftop, as this is not an oil platform.

They sure are dedicated to getting rid of pilots ! :rolleyes:

This is all an extension of a decades old concept called Urban Air Mobility (UAM). Recent technology breakthroughs with eVTOLS/VTOLs have merely re-emphasized this concept. One of the reasons UAM failed with helicopters was it wasn't "street-level" and had excessive noise. During the Heli-STAR ops for the Atlanta Olympics in the 90s, the street-level portion was further proven however there still was a noise issue with conventional helicopter. It was also the 1st real world test of ADSB which used the Heli-STAR helicopters and proved positive air space control in an urban environment was possible.

Given UAM has been around for so long, you'll find there are dozens of large cities globally that already have a UAM plan in place or in development. EASA and the FAA also have been working on UAM for just as long with the FAA using their Next-GEN platform for planning these infrastructures. The common factor with all these plans is that it will be street-level accessible and tie into other transport infrastructure. There are numerous reports, studies, and plans out in the public domain if you choose to read on it. Might also look for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Regional Air Mobility (RAM) titles as UAM and RAM have been restructured under AAM on an international level. The one thing most miss on this concept is that it is not to replace existing aviation modes but augment them in areas that were not or could not be serviced by those existing methods. Interesting times ahead.

The lilium pprune thread started in 2016 and forms a useful guide to the timeline of its development.
Last week it achieved a glowing report from EASA, which is linked in the last thread.


https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/57...ml#post9376365

Lilium published this video recently, aimed at investors, it is quite a good explainer on the core design hurdles in powering a electric vertical take off jet.

https://youtu.be/QgBp-YqZ_5M?si=QsuLL0lc-XwC-dHx
mjb

Here's a link to their latest video showing progress towards production of certifiable aircraft...

Wisk video detailing their traffic avoidance plans

The autonomy video said what it intended to do but (as far I could see) not how it was going to do it. It talks about standard routes and automated collision avoidance and interface with ATC. But self driving cars seem to be taking a lot longer to get certified than earlier expectations and they seem an order of magnitude easier and less dangerous. For instance what happens in case of technical failure say an electrical glitch? I am sure all of this is solvable, just that when you factor in aviation and other authorities this is going to take a very long time till meaningful implementation.

Take a look at this FAA paper..

​​​​​​​https://www.faa.gov/air-taxis/uam_blueprint

The noise aspect has been shelved and kept out of the debate, as many (wrongly) believe those electric aircraft will be silent. Well the engines are to a certain extend put the propeller blades are not, and multi high speed rotating props make an unpleasant high pitch noise. How the public , especially the people living under the routes will react and accept that new noise will be I believe one of the important acceptance factors ,

As to fully autonomous commercial operations, I just came back for a GNSS jamming/ spoofing meeting, and as long as this is not resolved I cannot see autonomous flights based on a GPS/GNSS infrastructure bring a viable option right now.

Nope - watch and listen to these flyover tests..