EVTOL

News, deep dives, and analysis — every EVTOL story, newest first.

125

Articles

Beats covered

Reporters on beat

Oct 30

Last updated

eVTOL — electric vertical takeoff and landing — is the class between drone and aircraft: air taxis and heavy cargo craft that promise to remake short-haul flight, on a timeline that keeps being renegotiated. This desk reports what actually flies.

The defining gap is geographic. China certifies and operates while America prepares: the FAA broke ground on an $8.3 million test range in Oklahoma to study aircraft already flying elsewhere, and Volkswagen washed out of China’s air-taxi race — a data point on how brutal that market is. The China desk carries the industrial context.

US infrastructure is arriving ahead of the vehicles: Orlando’s airport approved an eVTOL vertistop, awaiting FAA sign-off. And the cargo end got its surprise entrant — DJI’s EV50 delivery eVTOL debuted with a 29,072-foot Everest flight, a signal that the drone giants intend to scale up before the aviation firms scale down.

The regulatory machinery deciding all of it lives on the FAA desk, and the delivery economics on the drone delivery guide. Every eVTOL story lands in the feed below.

Key facts

What eVTOL means: Electric vertical takeoff and landing — air taxis and heavy delivery craft, the class between drone and aircraft
The reality check: China certifies and flies while the US builds test ranges — the eVTOLs the FAA's new $8.3M range will study are already flying elsewhere
Infrastructure arriving: Orlando's airport approved an eVTOL vertistop, awaiting FAA sign-off
The surprise entrant: DJI's EV50 delivery eVTOL debuted with a 29,072-foot Everest flight

Start here

Volkswagen Washed Out Of China's Air Taxi Race While America Builds An $8.3 Million Test Range — August 1, 2026
Orlando Airport Greenlights eVTOL Pad, Awaits FAA Sign-Off — July 18, 2026
DJI EV50 Debuts As Company’s First EVTOL Delivery Drone With A 29,072-Foot Everest Flight And No Word On When You Can Buy One — July 9, 2026

Last updated October 30, 2026 — the feed below updates with every new story.

White and blue Joby air taxi with tail number N545JX parked on a helipad beside the East River as a crowd takes photos

EVTOL · eVTOL

Joby Flies Florida's 1914 Airline Route, Still Without a Fare

Joby flew St. Petersburg to Tampa International on October 30 to open Florida's eIPP week, retracing the 1914 airline route with no fare set.

Haye KestelooOct 304 min read

Six people holding a yellow Wisk ribbon on a vertiport landing pad, two of them cutting it with gold scissors, in front of a yellow Wisk air taxi

eVTOL

Wisk Opens Its Hollister Vertiport as the FAA Rewrites Pad Rules

Wisk opened its 100-foot Hollister vertiport on October 29, a week after the FAA posted a draft standard that would replace the one it used.

Haye KestelooOct 30

Tan counter-drone sensor mast with flat Echodyne EchoShield radar panels and a camera head against a cloudy sky

FCC Filing

FCC Nov. 19 Drone Vote Would Rewrite Two Single-Licensee Bands

FCC votes Nov. 19 on 450 MHz drone control links, 24 GHz drone radar and in-flight Wi-Fi power rules. AURA and Gogo each hold one band alone.

Haye KestelooOct 28

Two Joby electric air taxis parked on marked landing pads on the roof of a parking garage, with charging stalls at street level

EVTOL

FAA Vertiport Draft Flattens Air Taxi Approaches It Won't Protect

FAA draft AC 150/5390-4 replaces EB 105A: new pad sizes, a fixed downwash zone and 15:1 powered-lift approaches the FAA won't evaluate.

Haye KestelooOct 26

EVTOL

Archer Flies Midnight Over San Francisco Bay, Runway to Runway

Archer flew its piloted Midnight air taxi around San Francisco Bay from Oakland airport. The uncut video shows a runway takeoff and landing, not vertical.

Haye KestelooOct 19

eVTOL

DeLorean Joins Flying-Car Racing in a Series That Says 'Remote Today'

DeLorean will field the US team in Airspeeder's flying-car racing series from November. Its first racer comes from a line built to fly with nobody aboard.

Haye KestelooOct 15

Joby J208 converted Cessna Caravan flying over the San Francisco skyline and bay

Technology

Joby Flew 3,199 Miles With Zero Pilot Input, in a Cessna Caravan

Joby flew a converted Cessna Caravan 3,199 miles across the US with zero pilot inputs, supervised remotely from California and Shaw Air Force Base.

Haye KestelooSep 18

Electra EL-2 hybrid-electric demonstrator N301EL banking in flight above clouds, showing its eight wing-mounted propellers

Technology

Electra CEO Keynotes Ohio Air Mobility Forum, EL9 Not Flying Yet

NAAMCE hosts its fifth advanced air mobility forum in Springfield on October 15, with Electra CEO Marc Allen keynoting a day about reaching production.

Haye KestelooSep 15

Frequently asked questions

Are air taxis actually real yet?

In China, increasingly yes — certification and passenger routes exist. In the US, the honest answer is 'infrastructure first': the FAA is building an $8.3 million test range in Oklahoma to study aircraft that are already flying elsewhere, and airports like Orlando are approving vertiports ahead of the vehicles.

What is the difference between an eVTOL and a drone?

Scale and stakes: an eVTOL carries people or heavy cargo, which pulls it into aircraft-grade certification. That certification gap — not the technology — is why the timeline keeps disappointing.

Who leads the eVTOL race?

China, by the measure that matters: aircraft certified and flying. Volkswagen washing out of China's air taxi race says how competitive that market is — and DJI's EV50 delivery eVTOL, debuted with an Everest flight, says the drone giants intend to own the cargo end.

EVTOL

Key facts

Start here

Frequently asked questions

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.