Watch Video: CBS News Second Report on “Companies Racing to Develop eVTOLs”

It appears CBS News has become enam­oured by fly­ing taxis as this is its sec­ond lengthy report since April. The video is 13.30’ min­utes long.

CNN Anchor­man, Ander­son Coop­er, and a CBS cor­re­spon­dent for 60 Min­utes, takes anoth­er enthu­si­as­tic look at the eVTOL indus­try. Hands on, he expe­ri­ences a one-man ride in a LIFT HEXA, bat­tery-pow­ered by 18 pro­pellers. Coop­er takes con­trol of the flight. After land­ing he enthus­es, “That was cool. That was awe­some!” Matt Chasen, CEO of Austin-based LIFT is then inter­viewed.

Next in line is Bil­ly Nolen, a pilot for 42 years and a for­mer Head of Safe­ty for the FAA before being named Act­ing Admin­is­tra­tor ear­li­er this year. He remarks, “I am amazed by the amount of inno­va­tion that has tak­en place.” The chal­lenges sur­round­ing eVTOL cer­ti­fi­ca­tion are dis­cussed.

Coop­er and Bevirt Dis­cuss “Noise”

Then on to JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby. He pops up all over the media land­scape. So, no sur­prise to see him on this CBS Spe­cial. Joby now takes cen­tre stage.

Bevirt has his mar­ket­ing speech down pat. He uses the same phras­es includ­ing a favourite describ­ing the Joby craft noise, “like the sound of the trees rather than the WAP WAP of a heli­copter.” That has become a pop­u­lar meme for him.

Bevirt points out the craft’s deci­bel lev­el is less than the back­ground cacoph­o­ny of many city cen­tres. Pre­sum­ably, then, you won’t hear it when fly­ing over­head? Inter­views with for­mer Tes­la employ­ee and now Joby’s bat­tery expert, Jon Wag­n­er, and Paul Scia­r­ra, the company’s Exec­u­tive Chair­man, fol­low.

On to Wisk and CEO, Gary Gysin. With a pro­file that went mete­oric after Boe­ing invest­ed USD450 mil­lion back in Jan­u­ary, Wisk is now viewed as a major eVTOL-play­er even though the com­pa­ny has attract­ed bare­ly any sales, con­firmed or uncon­firmed, com­pared to its com­peti­tors. Gysin explains Wisk has car­ried out close on 1,600 test flights with­out inci­dent.

This video is well worth view­ing.

Watch Video

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/evtol-flying-vehicles-air-taxi-60-minutes-2022–07-03/