VTOLs Are Next-Gen Aviation, Not the Next-Gen Helicopter

All the hoopla over VTOLs (Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft) have many asking "isn't this just another helicopter?" That would be the same as asking Igor Sikorsky, the father of helicopters, if his invention was just "another airplane"?

Just as helicopters proved to be a dramatic leap forward in aviation (despite helicopter buffs sarcasm that they fly by “beating the air into submission”), the nascent VTOL industry will take us on another giant leap. Helicopters have been limited to the wealthy when it comes to transportation, but VTOLs could finally be everyone's transportation of the future - and solve some of our infrastructure problems along the way.

The key differentiator, by just looking at a VTOL, is, of course, how it takes off and flies. In the most efficient form, it takes off like a helicopter (mostly straight up) and "transitions" into an airplane, where it does most of its work with its wings. It then transitions back into a helicopter-type design to land straight down.

That technology exists today, and full-scale VTOLs are flying in the military. But the V-22 and its derivatives themselves adopted the most expensive and complex parts of helicopters – and them conencted them together in even more complex ways. Only the U.S. military can afford that!Even traditional helicopters are expensive to operate, because their complexity requires  a lot of maintenance for every hour they fly, and since they don't move as fast as airplanes, those hours don’t get you very far. That’s why helicopters end up costing so much more per mile to get you places.

VTOLs under design are promoted as flying up to speeds of 450 miles per hour, about three times faster than a similarly sized helicopter. That means they can do a trip from Manhattan to Boston in half an hour. The direct cost of a VTOL flying to Boston from Manhattan would be just $449, compared to twice that in a helicopter. And many VTOLs are designed with whole aircraft parachute systems, providing a level of safety few aircraft have today (only the Cirrus aircraft family boast factory-installed parachutes today).

What about all-electric aircraft? Many would-be players in the VTOL space are pushing all-electric vehicles. They are coming. But not  yet. Just take your toy drone out for a spin and you'll notice how little battery life there is. That problem only gets worse with bigger aircraft.

The proof will be in the pudding, of course. But once jet-powered VTOLs are commercially flying, -- the more expensive, exclusive helicopter market will see some rapid changes – and if you are an air traveler, you'll get to experience them.

Besides my role at Hopscotch Air, I'm the Vice President of Marketing for Transcend Air, a start-up VTOL aircraft manufacturer and airline.