The future of flying is electric planes

The newbies include Eviation, an Israeli firm that expects its models with propellers on the wingtips to take off in 2019, Germany’s Lilium, with its electric vertical take-off and landing taxi jet for five people, and Zunum Aero, a hybrid plane company in Washington state preparing to test flights in 2019.

Just because there’s competition to be first doesn’t mean the companies aren’t helping each other.

“It’s pretty collaborative at this point,” Noertker said. The small companies have to work together to a certain extent. There isn’t a fully established supply chain yet and “we don’t compete on safety,” Noertker explained.

“It’s much more collaborative than it is competitive,” Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay echoed. “We have a battery, you have a battery.”

So best practices, information, and solutions get passed around. Getting a new airplane certified is a big challenge, so if working together can get everyone closer to that goal, they will. Others skirt around U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, hold-ups with experimental testing, which involves a far less rigorous permitting process.