• 25 Mar 2025 09:00 AM
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TVF 2025 Highlights AAM Progress and Challenges — Part 4: Small eVTOL Aircraft Developments

By Kenneth I. Swartz

This series is an expanded version of the article printed in the March/April 2025 issue of Vertiflite. Check out Part 1: Introduction, Part 2: AAM Perspectives and Part 3: Electric VTOL Leaders.

The Vertical Flight Society’s TVF 2025 was held at Phoenix Convention Center on Feb. 4–6, 2025, including the 12th Electric VTOL symposium and the 11th Biennial Autonomous VTOL Technical Meeting. 

TVF 2025 program featured presentations by companies developing electric motors, hybrid-electric propulsion systems and hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered electric aircraft. 

Jaunt Air Mobility

In 2022, Jaunt Air Mobility and five other drone, avionics, aerospace and defense businesses were acquired by AIRO Group Holdings, Inc. (“AIRO”). In 2023, AIRO announced plans to go public to raise funds for its expansion, initially pursuing a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). However, AIRO has since shifted its strategy to a traditional initial public offering (IPO).

In the meantime, Jaunt has transitioned its business to Canada where it plans to pursue Transport Canada certification of its five-seat Journey compound rotorcraft under Chapter 529: Transport Category Rotorcraft (equivalent to the FAA’s Part 29), once sufficient funding has been secured. 

Last summer, Jaunt Air Mobility and Vertiko Mobilité announced they had received up to C$2M (USD$1.4M) to test drones performing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights in a corridor to be established north of Montréal in Québec, demonstrating how drones can serve remote communities by delivering critical medical and cargo supplies. Initial work has been done with off-the-shelf Heidrun RQ-35 uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). 

More recently, Jaunt was notified of a pending funding award from the Canadian Initiative for Sustainable Aviation Technology (INSAT) program (see the author’s “Aéro Montréal Highlights Sustainability Innovations,” Vertiflite, July/Aug 2024). 

This project has accelerated the development of the scaled-down Jaunt Hybrid Cargo UAS — using the same slowed-rotor technology as the Journey to serve the medium-lift commercial cargo market. The Jaunt Cargo UAS will enter service ahead of the Journey.

The 93-mile (150-km) corridor will link the communities of Joliette, Saint-Donat, Saint-Michel Des Saints and the Atikamekw First Nation community of Manawan. The trial is expected to begin in early 2025, after Transport Canada issues a special flight operation certificate (SFOC). The drone also utilizes artificial intelligence-enhanced software/hardware developed by Thales for an advanced detect and avoid (DAA) system.

Pivotal

Since June 2023, when Pivotal delivered its first BlackFly to a private owner, a total of 14 of the ultralight eVTOLs have been delivered: six to early-access buyers in California, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington, and eight to Modern Technology Solutions, Inc. (MTSI) under a US Air Force AFWERX contract.

Feedback from owners and pilots (including friends and family of the initial customers) has helped refine the design of the production version — called the Helix — with the parts commonality with the BlackFly dropping from 55% to 5% in the past year. Pivotal increased the payload, power and density altitude performance of the new model and replaced the computer tablet cockpit display with a custom-built display, Pivotal CEO Ken Karklin told the TVF 2025 audience.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 103 ultralight aircraft rule limits a conventional ultralight to an empty weight of 254 lb (115 kg). However, the Helix will have an empty weight of 348 lb (158 kg), with Pivotal receiving a weight credit for the four wing-tip floats, the amphibious hull and the ballistic parachute.

As of early February, 41 people had flown the BlackFly, including many members of Pivotal’s technical team. A pilot’s license isn’t required to fly an ultralight aircraft, but Pivotal has developed a comprehensive pilot training program that includes ground school and simulator time, followed by in-aircraft training. The preflight checklist is now accessible on a smartphone app that communicates with the aircraft and has biometric security to unlock the aircraft.

Karklin said the company will be focused this year on expanding the public service and defense applications for the aircraft. Experimental first response missions have been flown with the BlackFly in suburban areas, and Pivotal will be validating new applications with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

Karklin said the company is looking at a Helix derivative for special operations forces (SOF) and plans to fly an experimental 555-lb (252-kg) Group 3 UAS with a Jet-A hybrid-electric propulsion system on a 250-mile (400-km) demonstration flight between Byron Airport and Meadows Field Airport in California in under 210 minutes at a target speed of 70 mph (113 km/h).

Pivotal also plans to scale up the design and develop larger hybrid-electric aircraft with a 26-ft (7.9-m) wingspan and 12 motors (versus eight on the Helix). The new model will have a 1,250-lb (567-kg) cargo capacity and a range of about 200 nm (370 km).

Karklin said Pivotal is considering various hybrid engine options, including a Jet-A piston, a turbine and even a Wankel engine for the powertrain, as well as the possibility of utilizing two turbines to provide redundancy.

SkyDrive 

SkyDrive was founded in July 2018, has raised $358M and employs more than 300 people developing passenger-carrying eVTOL aircraft and cargo drones.

The company’s current SKYDRIVE product is a three-seat battery-electric multicopter for urban air mobility that features 12 sets of motors and propellers. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 3,100 lb (1,400 kg) and a range of 9–25 miles (15–40 km) at a cruise speed of 54 kt (100 km/h).

Kenji Nakagawa, Director, Air Mobility Business Development at SkyDrive, said that in Japan, multicopters will be certified as rotorcraft, while winged eVTOL aircraft will be certified as fixed-wing aircraft, in contrast to other jurisdictions.

SkyDrive is building its prototype eVTOL aircraft at a plant owned by Suzuki Motor Company, an investor in the company, with the facility designed to produce 100 aircraft per year. The company announced that it had begun flying the SKYDRIVE demonstrator last year, he said (see “eVTOL Leaders Separate from the Pack,” Vertiflite, March/April 2025).

In concert with the Osaka Metro, SkyDrive plans to launch eVTOL routes in the Morinomiya area in about 2028 with further expansion through 2030. The company has also established a strategic partnership with JR Kyushu, a major rail company, which offers unique luxury travel experiences. 

In the US, SkyDrive is planning to enter the market in South Carolina and Georgia. It is working with government, aircraft operators and maintenance companies to identify feasible eVTOL routes. 

As of January 2025, SkyDrive had received preorders for more than 300 aircraft from five countries, including two customers in Japan (for one aircraft each), three in the US (20), two in Vietnam (up to 200 aircraft) and one customer each in South Korea (up to 50) and India (up to 50 aircraft).

He said that the company’s key near-term objective is to demonstrate its aircraft at the World Expo 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Kansai, Japan. The Expo has an overall theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” 

The flight demonstrations are scheduled from the Advanced Mobility Experience Area under construction for the World Expo, which runs for six months, starting from April 13. Four other eVTOL companies (including Archer, Joby, Lift and Vertical) are also expected to conduct flight demos at different periods during the Expo. 

Odys Aviation

At first glance, Odys Aviation’s Laila UAS and nine-passenger Alta appear to be fixed-wing eCTOL aircraft utilizing distributed propulsion on a boxed-wing. Looks are deceiving because this is an eVTOL aircraft with large drooping flaps that are used to vector the thrust from multiple propellers downwards to vertically take off and land. 

Odys has won 12 Department of Defense contracts worth $10M, said James Dorris, CEO and co-founder of Odys Aviation.

The company has completed the first phase of its aircraft development plan, Dorris said. It has built eight sub-scale prototype aircraft and flown them over the past 24 months to validate the VTOL and cruise phases of flight, with a full transition of the electric drone achieved in the fourth quarter of 2024. 

The second development phase is now underway, which is to develop the hybrid-electric Laila UAS, with a 22-ft (6.7-m) wingspan. Odys expects it will have a maximum speed of 125 mph (200 km), and a 450-mile (724-km/h) range with a 65-lb (29.5-kg) payload, or a 100-mile (160-km) range with a 130-lb (59-kg) payload. 

The third phase will be the development of the much larger two-crew, nine-passenger Alta. This aircraft is being designed to have a range of 750 miles (1,200 km) utilizing a hybrid-electric propulsion system or a 200-mile (320-km) range using batteries alone.

Odys Aviation was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California, with a design office in Munich, Germany. 

To be continued ... in Part 5: eVTOL Propulsion Developments.