7 Key Steps To Realizing the Electric Aircraft Revolution – Global…

Significant progress has been made towards realizing the ambitions of electric aviation pioneers. Aircraft have been built and tested, and regulators have been busy developing frameworks for aircraft and operational certification.

This is good news for original aircraft manufacturers (OEMs) who have invested billions in developing electric aircraft. According to one report*, the larger companies alone have issued individual statements that, taken together, suggest that a combined 26,000 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) will be produced by 2030. That is a staggering number when considering that most eVTOLs are still in pre-production testing and when comparing it to the total number of commercial aircraft in service today worldwide.

At the annual Revolution.Aero Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) conference recently held in San Francisco, the majority of delegates (including many industry insiders) predicted that only a few thousand electric aircraft would be in service by 2030. That is likely a pessimistic prediction, especially when smaller cargo aircraft are factored into calculations.

Regardless of the actual numbers, what is clear is that if the OEMs’ goals are to be realized and the corresponding flight activity supported, many other pieces of the jigsaw puzzle must fall into place quickly.

1. Infrastructure

Primary among items required to support aircraft operations will be the physical and technological scaffolding to facilitate mass adoption....