I belatedly renew my membership of the Vertical Flight Society, so as to keep my iron in the vertical flyer, and shall produce here a potted round-up of their own. Of most significance, the sale of Volocopter to China. Along with the financial travails of both Vertical and Lilium, the takeaway is that you won't get backing to get anything off the ground in Europe unless it's an Airbus.
Here though are two that I'd like to see literally and figuratively take off, one as yet only a CGI render from Bristol in the UK and another a WIGE on the water in the US.
There was I seem to recall an earlier attempt elsewhere in the UK to interest people in an electrical 'flying bus' but it appears to have followed the well-worn eVTOL path:
(a) Produce a glossy website
(b) Assemble glossy CVs on the promise of at least a month's salary
(c) Convince those most gullible in the City of London (take your pick)
(d) Spend a good deal of the revenue on buffets and life-like renders
(e) Go back to the day job.
Nonetheless I view flying buses of this kind as the natural heir to the Fairey Gyrodyne, and if asked the difference between aviation in the UK in the 1960s as against now, in the former it involved government and national airlines before buying American, while now we go direct to American without passing 'Go'.
Talking of which, I've long been a fan of wing-in-ground-effect and as with hydrofoils the problem was always how to regulate height. Processors have since (a) automated such control challenges whilst (b) providing ample electrical power. The result is a literal resurgence of such craft, of which Regent have attracted most investment and pre-orders.
I'd love one day to sit as a passenger in each.
Top: Regent
Bottom: Sora (geddit?)
