California-based eVTOL startup Joby Aviation is gearing up to fly people from UK airports to nearby cities in England in little air taxis at 200 mph (322 km/h), in partnership with long-haul carrier Virgin Atlantic.
The company says its six-rotor electric air taxi can seat five – including the pilot – and get you from Manchester Airport to Leeds in 15 minutes instead of the one hour it takes by road. It could also cut the 80-minute journey from Heathrow Airport to London’s Canary Wharf down to 8 minutes.
The aircraft can cover up to 100 emissions-free miles (160 km) on a single charge, and takes off much more quietly than a helicopter. Joby hasn’t said when it will start these short-haul flights in the UK, but noted that it “expects to offer prices that are comparable with existing premium ground ridesharing options at launch.”
That could be something indeed. The company had applied to have its eVTOL aircraft validated for use in the UK by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority in 2022; it will need that to come through, and build out its network of landing locations in major cities before its service can operate viably at reasonable prices.
Joby Aviation
Joby has certainly been busy in the last several months: it raised US$700 million towards the end of 2024 in the form of a round of funding from Toyota to bolster its certification and production efforts as well as a public stock offering. The company also pulled off a 523-mile non-stop flight with its S4 eVTOL air taxi last July, leveraging hydrogen fuel cells instead of lithium batteries.
The company had hoped to begin flying passengers around in the US sometime this year or the next, but it might have to wait to be approved for take-off. The US Federal Aviation Administration has been ordered to hold off on enforcing its new air taxi operations rule until later this week so that Trump administration staffers can review those provisions.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Skydrive received certification from the country’s aviation bureau for a three-seater eVTOL aircraft last month, which means it’s close taking to the skies. Over in China, EHang has been pioneering autonomous eVTOLs. It received the first-ever certification for this kind of vehicle in 2023, and shipped several aircraft thereafter. Last November, it claimed to test solid-state batteries in its pilotless eVTOL to achieve 48 minutes of continuous flight flight – doubling what the same aircraft managed previously.
And German aerospace startup Lilium came back from the dead as it received a $206 million lifeline in January to resume building air taxis, after going into administration the month prior. The rise of the eVTOLs, it seems, is nearly here.
Source: Joby Aviation