By Futurist Thomas Frey
The eVTOL era is arriving on schedule — and its real implications have almost nothing to do with aviation
The Promise That Kept Getting Delayed
People have been predicting flying cars for so long that the prediction became a punchline. The Jetsons promised them in 1962. Blade Runner put them in 2019. Every decade or so, a prototype appears at an air show, gets covered breathlessly, and then quietly disappears into a legal or engineering or funding cul-de-sac. The joke writes itself: we were supposed to have flying cars, and instead we got 140-character messages.
I want to suggest that this particular joke has an expiration date, and we’re approaching it. What’s happening right now in the eVTOL — electric vertical takeoff and landing — industry is not another hype cycle. It’s a genuine inflection point with specific companies, specific aircraft, specific regulatory milestones, and a specific deadline in the form of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics that is driving everything toward a concrete moment of arrival. The flying car is coming. Not for everyone, not everywhere, not all at once — but it is coming, and the implications go considerably further than a faster ride to the airport.
Continue reading… “Flying Cars Are Not a Joke Anymore. Here’s What’s Actually Happening.”