Story ID: 
Vertical Flight Society Grows Alongside eVTOL Industry
By: Chad Trautvetter
Caption: Growth in the emerging eVTOL industry is spilling over to the Vertical Flight Society, which saw its company membership increase by 20% last year.
Word Count: 235
The “explosive” growth in the emerging eVTOL aircraft industry is spilling over to the Vertical Flight Society (VFS), which saw its company membership base climb by nearly 20 percent in 2021 and double over the past five years. At the beginning of this year, VFS counted 163 company members, up from 127 a year earlier.

Further, individual membership has also grown to more than 6,300—a nearly 10 percent jump from early 2021 and 30 percent higher than five years ago. According to VFS, much of this growth is due to the extensive support efforts and resources that the association provides to the vertical flight industry, including technical resources, talent acquisition, educational opportunities, and networking. 

“This past year saw steady technical progress and eye-popping financial investments in the leading eVTOL developers,” said VFS executive director Mike Hirschberg. “VFS had estimated $4.5B of investments in eVTOL companies in 2010 to 2020. However, last year saw several additional developers go public and/or attract sizeable private investments; the total additional global estimate in 2021 alone was around $6B.”

Currently, VFS has cataloged more than 590 different electric VTOL concepts from nearly 350 companies. When VFS started keeping track of this industry in April 2017, only a dozen eVTOL programs were under development. Nearly 200 new designs were added last year, it noted.

Next week, the group will hold its 2022 Transformative Vertical Flight event in San Jose, which includes the Electric VTOL Symposium.