The FAA issued Beta Technologies a special airworthiness certificate for market surveys on its Alia A250, the first for an electric vertical-takeoff aircraft, announced by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on October 21. It lets Beta fly the aircraft for prospective operators and customers, within FAA limits. It does not allow fare-paying service, which still requires full type certification.
Joby has cleared four of the FAA's five certification stages, Dubai certified the first purpose-built vertiport, and EHang has been type-certified in China since 2023. Nobody is flying paying passengers at scale, and the field's binding constraint is cash against a certification clock.
Archer Aviation signed a definitive agreement to acquire Boeing's Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid, paying in equity: Boeing gets a 19.75% stake plus warrants, potential follow-on equity and a board nominee. The deal adds a profitable defense business with more than $200M of annual revenue and is expected to close by end-2026.
Archer Aviation and defense firm Anduril unveiled a jointly developed hybrid-electric autonomous VTOL — ~400kg payload, 500km+ range — with a military variant, Thunder, pitched as a Group 5 'loyal wingman.' It's the first product of their 2025 partnership; Archer shares rose ~20%. First flight is targeted for 2027.
Archer Aviation, BETA Technologies and Macquarie Capital launched America's Consortium for Electric Skyways (ACES), to deploy interoperable CCS-standard chargers at 250+ airports and vertiports across California, Texas, Florida and New York by 2030 — prioritizing markets in the FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.
eVTOL leaders are pre-revenue and burning cash toward certification. Joby and Archer have raised billions and look funded; many European rivals already went bankrupt. Our read on who has the runway. (Our opinion, not investment advice.)
Our read — labelled opinion, not investment advice.
Air-taxi makers are not building the same vehicle. Joby and Archer bet on piloted, ~100-mile aircraft; EHang and Volocopter fly shorter, often autonomous hops. The range spec reveals the strategy.
An eVTOL can fly thousands of test flights and still not be allowed to carry a paying passenger. The gate is FAA type certification — a five-stage process — and it, not flashy demos, is the real finish line.
Joby Aviation 
EHang 
Volocopter 