U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced eight pilot projects to test Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing vehicles (eVTOL) that’s scheduled to start across 26 states this summer.
Officially known as the Advanced Air Mobility and eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, the Department of Transportation says the futuristic vehicles “have the potential to generate new jobs, connect communities, and strengthen American leadership in aviation.”
“Together, these pilot projects will create one of the largest real-world testing environments for next-generation aircraft in the world,” the Department of Transportation said in a press release posted online. “In addition to offering the American people an exciting window into the future of aviation, data from the pilot projects will be used by the FAA to develop new regulations that safely enable this futuristic technology at scale.”
And while it remains to be seen whether eVTOLs can actually deliver the “flying car” future that Duffy promised in a promotional video posted across the Transportation Department’s various social media accounts Monday, it’ll definitely be interesting to see how much money the federal government ultimately invests in eVTOLs after the three-year program is finished.
The video, as you can see below, opens with a clip from The Jetsons, the animated TV show that debuted in 1962 and ran for just one season before getting a reboot in the 1980s. The Jetsons was a vital cultural touchstone for people of the 20th century whenever discussing the future, though it’s been relegated to retro-futuristic status for at least a couple of generations now.
These visions for eVTOLs are technically not flying cars, since they take off vertically like a helicopter and you can’t drive them on the road, but the term is often shorthand that people understand when trying to discuss things like an air taxi service. Some people also tend to use the term eVTOL when an aircraft isn’t strictly electric. The terminology can be confusing to say the least.
The government program announced Monday includes eVTOL passenger operations at the Manhattan heliport, run through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and cargo tests over the Gulf of Mexico operated out of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, according to a press release. The agency also says there will be tests of emergency medical response operations from the Florida Department of Transportation, along with pilot programs in states like Utah and Texas.
Companies participating in the pilot program include:
- Ampaire
- Archer
- BETA
- Electra
- Elroy Air
- Joby
- Reliable Robotics
- Wisk
Duffy did what every member of the Trump regime does in his announcement Monday, thanking the president like we live in some authoritarian state where the leader is responsible for everything.
“Thanks to President Trump, the future of aviation is here — and it’s going to dramatically improve how people and products move,” said Duffy. “Congratulations to the great American innovators behind each of these exciting pilot programs. Working together, we will ensure America leads the way in safely leveraging next-gen aircraft to radically redefine personal travel, regional transportation, cargo logistics, emergency medicine, and so much more.”
As an industry, flying cars have quite a long history of failure. The concept is over a century old, and during the past 20 years they’ve supposedly perpetually been just two years away. Without government help, eVTOL companies can struggle. For example Supernal, an air taxi company with backing from Hyundai, recently laid off hundreds of workers in California. Building a flying vehicle is one thing. Making a profitable business from it is the difficult part.
President Trump first talked about eVTOLs years ago, if you can believe it. The president made a video about flying cars in early 2023, long before his win the 2024 presidential election, promising he’d take them seriously as a way to best China technologically.
“Another big opportunity is in transportation. Dozens of major companies in the United States and China are racing to develop vertical take-off and landing vehicles for families and individuals,” Trump said in the 2023 video.
“Just as the United States led the automotive revolution in the last century, I want to ensure that America, not China, leads the revolution in air mobility. These breakthroughs can transform commerce, bring a giant infusion of wealth into rural America, and connect families in our country in new ways,” said Trump.
Needless to say, Trump isn’t paying much attention to flying cars this week. He’s got his hands full with a war he started in Iran; one about which he continues to give conflicting messages.
Will the U.S. get flying cars before World War III? You could probably make some decent money betting online if you know the answer to that one. But if the answer is no, getting paid out for being right might be a problem given that the internet could presumably be experiencing problems and U.S. currency may not be worth anything anymore.
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