Urban air mobility is poised for massive disruption over the next five years, as a wide range of new aviation and aerospace crafts rapidly move from prototype to flight testing to commercialisation, a new study from Starburst Accelerator predicts.

The Next Wave of Startup Unicorns Emerging from the Aerospace Renaissance report draws parallels with how shared, electric, and autonomous vehicles are redefining ground transportation as it identifies the new technological developments that will enable this disruption.

More than $200m in known investments will help prime vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft for commercial deployment.

“For years, we’ve seen institutions like NASA developing and successfully applying distributed electric technologies to VTOL aircraft,” said Mark Moore, director of aviation, Uber Engineering.

“Based on those successes and the incredible innovation from both incumbents and early-stage players, we believe that VTOLs, and eVTOLs in particular, have the potential to well exceed the current commercial aviation market and could fundamentally change transportation as we know it.”

Described as the first comprehensive report focused on the emerging urban air mobility sector it assesses the global market drivers, salient technology trends, key players, and ones to watch in each of its seven categories. These are foldable wings cars; multicopters; VTOLs; paragliding cars; jetpacks; personal hover vehicles; and miscellaneous projects.

Spotlighting 50 of the fastest growing air mobility companies today, Starburst evaluated players based on price points, pre-registrations, and production numbers, and predicts these nine companies will be the ones to watch in 2017:

• Aeromobil, Slovakia: commercialisation phase of a foldable wings car
• Aurora Flight Sciences, US: successful test flight of an eVTOL aircraft in April 2017
• Ehang, China: first flight of an electric multicopter in March 2017, operational in Dubai in July 2017
• Flike, Hungary: first flight of an electric hovercraft in March 2015
• Flyboard, France: hovering world record for a jet hovercraft in March 2017
• Kittyhawk, US: successful test flight of an electric hovercraft in April 2017
• Lilium, Germany: successful test flight of an eVTOL aircraft in April 2017
• Urban Aero, Israel: commercialisation phase of a fuel multicopter
• Volocopter, Germany: commercialisation phase of an electric multicopter

“Right now, we are reaching an inflection point where technology has matured sufficiently to create urban flight vehicles that are primed for mass adoption,” added François Chopard, founder and CEO, Starburst Accelerator.

“We anticipate that these new modes of transportation will reduce commute times, supplant existing modes of mobility, facilitate continued economic progress and social satisfaction, and provide the backbone for the next generation of smart cities.”

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