Some expected the Covid-led calamities of 2020 to have a devastating impact on the large cohort of start-ups seeking to bring new, largely eVTOL, aircraft to market. Some wondered whether investors might lose their appetite for this much-hyped precocious sector. Others pondered how consumers might rethink their attitudes toward getting into small cabins to rideshare with complete strangers, as per some of the new urban air mobility business models. As the year closed, the fallout appeared to be somewhat minimal, or at least not especially visible. Some of the supposedly 250-plus new programs appear to have hibernated to a degree, but the acknowledged front-runners seem to be pressing ahead, with the likes of Volocopter, Joby Aviation, Lilium, Vertical Aerospace, and Wisk to some extent appearing to pull away from the pack.
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