Expect a lot at Farnborough — except air taxis in the sky

By Paul Brinkmann|July 11, 2024

Organizers anticipate strong attendance fueled by defense, environmental issues

The exhibitor and corporate attendee list for the upcoming Farnborough International Airshow shows that five of the major electric air taxi developers around the world plan to attend the event outside London.

None of the five, however, plan to fly their aircraft.

When I surveyed each of them, they said they would rather keep their aircraft flying at home in test programs geared toward obtaining type certificates from aviation authorities — FAA in some cases, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency or the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority in others.

The five attending are, at this writing, all in the top half of the Advanced Air Mobility Reality Index, a dynamic ranking of 28 companies created by SMG Consulting for those who need to gauge the relative progress of developers, with No. 1 being the top position.

• Joby Aviation, No. 4 on the index, has been test flying its tilt propeller S4 in California in pursuit of an FAA type certificate and plans to show a full-scale model of the four-passenger aircraft in an exhibit hall.
• Lilium, No. 11, plans to bring to an exhibit hall a flight simulator, charger and full-scale mockup of its Lilium Jet, which will have a varying number of passengers depending on the model chosen by the customer. Lilium is based in Munich but has been flying a prototype in Spain toward type certification by EASA concurrently with FAA. The company said it was not interested in flying at the air show because doing so “would not help us achieve manned flight and type certification more quickly.”
• Supernal, No. 14, the advanced air mobility arm of Hyundai Motor Group in South Korea, intends to show a full-scale mockup of its planned S-A2 aircraft in the company’s chalet. It’s a four-passenger tilt-propeller design that the company intends to fly for the first time later this year in California.
• Vertical Aerospace, No. 10, based in Bristol about 160 kilometers west of Farnborough, plans to display components of its planned four-passenger VX4, a second prototype of which it plans to start flying this year. Visitors also will be invited to don a virtual reality headset to walk around a digital rendering of the aircraft, sit in it and fly it. As recently as December, Vertical had wanted to fly a full-scale VX4 prototype during the air show. The company told me it shifted away from that “ambitious” goal to “prioritise progressing the flight test program this summer.”
• Wisk Aero, No. 7, plans to display a full-scale model of its four-passenger Gen 6 tilt propeller aircraft, which it plans to start flying this year.

As viable as those companies might be, the absence of other top contenders could disappoint those who follow this developing sector, given that the nonattendees are packed near the very top of the AAM Reality Index.

Archer Aviation, No. 5, has been flying its Midnight aircraft at the Salinas Municipal Airport in California, about 100 kilometers south of its headquarters in San Jose. The company explained its reasoning for not bringing an aircraft to Farnborough: “Taking an aircraft out of our flight test program for a demonstration flight comes with tremendous developmental and monetary cost. It is critical we keep our team extremely focused on maintaining our certification and flight test momentum as we prepare for piloted flights later this year.”

BETA Technologies, No. 3, has been test flying its electric Alia aircraft in multiple locations, including near its headquarters in Vermont. It won’t have a display but will send a representative to observe the show.

EHang, No. 2, of Guangzhou in China, which has a type certificate for its two-seat EH216-S multicopter from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, is not listed on the program or exhibitor list, and did not reply to an email query about its attendance at the air show.

Who currently tops the index? It’s Volocopter, based near Stuttgart, Germany. The company said by email that it is still deciding what type of presence it might have, if any, at Farnborough. It said a higher priority will be piloted demonstration flights of its VoloCity two-seat multicopter in Paris during the Summer Olympics, which starts July 26.

Those flights — without passengers — would start in early August on a route between Saint Cyr L’ecole Airport near the suburb of Versailles and a platform on the Seine River near the Austerlitz train station in central Paris. Volocopter officials had said as recently as February that the plan was to fly passengers during the Olympics, but the company told me this week by email that no passengers will be carried.

“It is of utmost importance to us and our partners to demonstrate how urban air mobility can improve the lives of city dwellers, especially when the world’s eyes are on Paris,” the company said.

The decision by attendees not to fly at the air show, which is held at a private airport in a small town 55 kilometers west of London, was understandable to at least one analyst. Packing up a prototype and shipping it to the U.K. for an air show, especially from the United States, would be a significant interruption of a test flight program, said Sergio Cecutta, a co-founder of SMG Consulting, the Arizona-based company that maintains the AAM Reality Index.

Archer and Joby, for example, plan to begin their services in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, Cecutta said, so a European air show wouldn’t be a priority right now.

“I would say it’s a lot more likely that you will see some of these aircraft showing in the Middle East next year,” he predicted.

Regardless of demonstration flights, electric aircraft will be a major focus of Farnborough on Thursday, July 25, when the Global Urban and Advanced Air Summit is scheduled to take place. The all-day program is to include panel talks and speeches on urban air mobility and advanced air mobility.