Why flying cars are a lot closer than you think

Certainly, there are parallels with the driverless car industry, which seemed a sure thing and attracted huge funding in the second half of the 2010s, only to get bogged down in the very real challenges of implementation. And, like many tech stocks, values of listed eVTOL companies have taken a battering over the last 12 months. 

Even so, there is a sense that this time we will see take off, for several reasons: the aircraft have come so far along the gruelling regulatory pathway and the finish line is just in sight. Battery advances have finally made clean, powerful thrust possible. Running costs have plummeted, and the potential… well, the sky’s the limit. “When I first looked at the topic I was slightly sceptical,” says Wyatt. “But the more I investigated, [the more I see] it is a technology that has a promising future.”

Governments are piling in, too. Britain has its £300 million Future Flight Challenge fund to encourage development. “Where it happens first…