In retrospect the mistake I made with experiments over many years with electrified means of flight, was imagining that it was ever going to be cheap. The front-runners seen here ~ developed in Europe, the US and UK ~ are all taking deposits up front for deliveries from hereon in, although Pivotal (centre) lead Jetson (above) and are far ahead of Axe (below).
Broadly however in terms of pricing the Jetson starts at around $150,000, the one looking like a flea from $200,000 and the spindly one an eye-watering $350,000.
They are a part however of an aviation/boating ecosystem that considers $100,000 as a bargain-basement price for anything you can sit in that moves.
There are though a lot of rich people out there, and if I had the disposable I'd want one too. If you are considering one, and I doubt anyone reading this is, I can offer a little advice that stems from a lifetime in and around aircraft.
Firstly, they haven't started crashing yet and are not immune to accidents that even a computer won't get you out of. I began my flying career sat with a parachute built into the seat, and I think I'd still want something similar strapped to my backside in the event of flying any of these.
And the temptation to fly low in each of these ~ watch the promo vids ~ is contrary to a century or more of aviation practice that views considers height to be the best possible insurance against death. The Jetson has two propellers at each corner for redundancy, but inadvertent collision with unseen elements of the urban landscape means you are going down... and doing that from 50' or 100' feels much like 1000'.
On balance, which would I choose? Well helicopters have always been about specific roles and flexibility of use, while fixed-winged aircraft have always been about going places. The Jetson is therefore a great means of hopping between your super-yacht and the shore, or else flying for pleasure.
It is and always will be, however, decidedly limited by physics in terms of range and endurance. Add wings as Pivotal have done, and you can reduce the power used in vertical take-off and landing from 80% to an extraordinary 10%... helis like Jetson recover only a fraction of that efficiency once in forward motion.
The one advantage I can see for the Axe in conventional terms would be its ability for rolling take-offs and landings. The most successful fixed-wing VTOL in practise was the Harrier jump-jet, but its fuel-consumption in the hover ~ where it was near twenty times less efficient than a helicopter ~ was significantly reduced during what were called short-field take-offs and landings with nozzles nearer 45° degrees 90°.
What eVTOL developers have found from flight trials is that near-vertical take-offs and landings burn through a sizeable proportion of fuel reserves, which is probably why they all still feature wheels.
Whether it makes the Axe worth almost twice the Pivotal or three times the Jetson I shall leave to you, but clearly there are people out there that do.
The joker in the pack as ever, though, has to be the Chinese. As a paid-up member of the Vertical Flight Society I cannot help noticing that ALL the latest developments in means of personal mobility like these stem from thereabouts. They are in process of making the global market for EVs their own, and I see no reason why this need not be extend into spaces soon to be occupied by PAVs or 'personal air vehicles'.
They may yet be altogether more affordable in fulness of time, like the family car.
Whether it happens while I'm still about is questionable, so I'll just keep droning on.
