Starburst Accelerator, the global aerospace and aviation incubator, has released its first comprehensive report focused on the emerging urban air mobility sector:
“The Next Wave of Startup Unicorns Emerging from the Aerospace Renaissance.”
Based on its proprietary methodology, the Starburst report assesses the global market drivers, salient technology trends, key players, and Ones to Watch in each of its seven categories:
- Foldable wings cars
- Multicopters
- Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircrafts
- Paragliding cars
- Jetpacks
- Personal hover vehicles, and
- Miscellaneous projects.
Just as shared, electric, and autonomous vehicles are redefining ground transportation, 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 commercialization.
The report identifies the new technological developments and over $200 million in known investments that will enable this disruption and prime vertical take-off and landing (VTOLs) systems for commercial deployment.
“For years, we’ve seen institutions like NASA developing and successfully applying distributed electric technologies to VTOL aircraft,” said Mark Moore, Uber Engineering Director of Aviation.
“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.”
(Learn More. Courtesy of The Aerospace Corporation and YouTube)
Starburst’s Ones to Watch
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: commercialization phase of a foldable wings car
- Aurora Flight Sciences, United States: 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, United States: 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: commercialization phase of a fuel multicopter
- Volocopter, Germany: commercialization 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,” said François Chopard, Starburst Accelerator founder and CEO.
“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.”
To read the full report, please visit: http://starburst.aero/trends/.
Starburst Accelerator, the global aerospace and aviation incubator, provides support to start-ups seeking to commercialize their activities in the aeronautics, defense and space markets.
The program acts as a catalyst, linking early-stage companies to a wide network of strategic industry players and potential partners to accelerate the adoption of breakthrough innovations. Through its dedicated venture capital network, Starburst Venture also supports fundraising initiatives and strategic investments.
