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By Bjorn Fehrm

July 20, 2023, © Leeham News: We look at the promises that VTOL OEMs made in their Investor prospects and the scale-down in capabilities as Certification comes closer. We also analyze whether the reduced capabilities will be the final cuts.

In the end, it’s about how operationally useful real-world eVTOL will be and what mission they do better or cheaper than helicopters. It will decide whether the category will have a breakthrough or not.

Figure 1. The Joby Aviation S4 production prototype. Source: Joby Aviation.

Summary:

• The Investor's presentations from eVTOL OEMs are full of “up to” for speeds and feeds.
• When we use our aircraft and eVTOL performance model, the reality is well short of the claims.