Some startup plane makers are betting on a future where people can hitch a ride for a few hundred dollars in an electric flying taxi to get through congested traffic — perhaps showcasing the effort in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The buzzing around of these electric-powered aircraft at 150 miles per hour at a few thousand feet overhead in one of the world’s busiest air travel hubs won’t be unlike The Jetsons, a cartoon set in the year 2062, depicting flying cars as a regular means of transportation, or Minority Report, a film set in 2054, featuring advanced aircraft, including police vehicles, that are used for quick travel and surveillance.
A few of the aviation companies are in advanced stages of developing these flying taxis, and are hopeful to get them certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in time for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games — some even sooner in the next year or so. Observers say the Olympics could spark interest in this emerging industry as more than 15 million visitors are expected to arrive for the international sporting event.
The concept is simple: To cut through traffic, visitors to the Olympics Games could board an electric flying taxi after watching track and field competitions at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and zip over in 20 minutes to catch a mountain bike race at the 1,800-acre, Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas.
But there are challenges to meet the Olympic deadline.
Some of the electric flying taxi makers are struggling financially — or disappeared from the landscape altogether — and the timelines to get newly developed aircraft certified by the FAA, pilots trained and qualified to fly, approval of a commercial service and flight routes, could consume most of the next three years, according to experts.
“They are coming, but when?” asked Sergio Cecutta, a consultant with Irvine-based SMG Consulting that advises the startups and aeropace companies on their advanced air mobility strategies. “These tech companies came in with this mindset that they’re going to disrupt the industry, until they met the regulators and the regulations.The FAA and others are not there to impede progress. They’re there to make sure that when you set foot on one of these airplanes that they’re no less safe than if you just step out of your house.”
Cecutta thinks it could be late 2026 or 2027 before any of these electric flying taxis get FAA certification — which will have the same level of safety as a commercial passenger jet.
“They have a 50-foot wingspan and fly in the sky at something like 1,000- or 2,000-feet high. They make basically the same level of noise as a quiet conversation. You will see them, but you won’t hear them,” Cercutta said.
Ubers in the sky
For sure, they’ll add a new dimension in the skies above Los Angeles.
To fly these futuristic craft during the Olympics, the makers will need FAA aproval for the type of commercial service they want to operate — like a self-owned and operated service or partnerships with an airline. None of the potential manufacturers with an electric-powered aircraft have gotten so far as submitting planned routes to fly during the Olympic Games. The experts say that they want to fly routes from John Wayne Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Van Nuys Airport, or from a downtown L.A. skyscraper, to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood or to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Above, an artist’s rendering of an electric air taxi parked in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Silicon Valley-based Archer Aircraft Inc. plans to shuttle visitors and athletes in the electric-powered aircraft during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archer announced May 18, 2025, that it is the official Olympic shuttle service on short flights throughout traffic-congested Southern California for the international sporting event scheduled to begin in three years. (Courtesy of Archer Aircraft Inc.)The experts say that the routes will resemble those already approved for helicopters.
Much like electric vehicles need a charger, the flying taxis also need a filling station to supercharge their batteries to travel 10s of miles to more than 150 miles in distance. These vertiports where high-powered electrical lines will connect with supercharsgers are where the flying taxis will take off and land, and will be located at an airport, on top of a building, or in some urban or suburban area. One of these charging stations is being built near one of the runways at John Wayne Airport’s Clay Lacy, a fixed based operator that is building a new jet fuel and electric fueling area, maintenance, hangar space and lounge for passengers to wait.
“We put fuel in airplanes. This is just putting in a new type of fuel in a new type of airplane,” said Scott Cutshall, president in charge of real estate and sustainability with Clay Lacy at John Wayne.
Clay Lacy’s new FBO next to the main commercial runway on the west side, won’t be completed until 2026 or 2027, Cutshall said. “We want to partner with as many different operators as possible to make sure what we’re doing works for everybody.”
Also see: Joby Aviation electric air taxi charger coming to John Wayne Airport
Cecutta sees the Olympic timeline as being ambitious for the electric flying taxis.
“The regulations are in place and have been approved. The comments have been filed. What you see now is these these companies going through the certification process and many times, to cater to investors, will make statements that are a little bit hyperbolic,” Cecutta said. “So, they get into this discrepancy between when they think the airplane will be available as opposed to when the the aiplane is really going to be available.”
After aircraft certification, it may take another six months to a year before any of the electric flying taxis are placed in commercial service, he said. “If you start adding all the numbers together, you see that the 2028 Olympic Games timeframe is kind of like tomorrow, not three years away,” Cecutta said.
Buzzing overhead
The new aircraft are powered by electric-charged batteries that lift off vertically, and when they reach a certain elevation, the aircraft’s engines with propellers will tilt so that they fly like a fixed-wing aircraft. They use technology similar to the military’s tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey, which is used for troop transport. Archer Aviation’s Midnight is roughly five times lighter than the V-22’s 33,140-pound weight.
The electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOL as they are called in the aerospace world, will buzz overhead between Olympic venues.They generally will carry four passengers and a pilot, except one plane whose developer, Wisk, a subsidiary of aerospace giant Boeing Co., that expects to have a pilotless model to be working by the end of the decade, according to David Oord, a policy manager with Wisk.
Wisk is targeting the 2032 Brisbane summer Olympic Games in Australia to show off its service. Like the piloted eVTOLs, the autnomous eVTOL aircraft must still be certified by the FAA through a regulatory process that still needs to be written and finalized, Oord said.
“I think there is no better world stage than the Olympics,” Oord said.
“If you can get the aircraft certificated, the commercial operation certificated, and the crew qualified and trained, and have the infrastructre in place for the L.A. Olympics, and put that on dispaly for the world stage, I think that is fantastic,” he said. “Wisk is a little bit futher out there [with our schedule], but we do fully support this because anytime you see these aircraft flying, and showing the benefit to these communities, helping people move about the city …, versus being stuck on the 405 Freeway, I’m all for it.”
There are three major players who want their electric flying taxis ready for the Olympics in 2028 — though most are looking at Dubai or Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, to launch their first commercial service, then New York City and Los Angeles. With help from Southwest Airlines and others, Wisk is eyeing Houston for its initial launch between a handful of commercial jet and general aviation airports, according to Oord.
Archer Aviation, a Silicon Valley-based startup, announced May 15 that it would become the “official” air taxi provider to shuttle athletes and visitors for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Adam Goldsmith, the chief executive of the aviation company, said that he is optimistic about having a plane certified by the end of this year or in 2026.
“I think this is an opportunity to make people dream again and get excited about innovation,” Goldsmith said. “I think the Olympics is the biggest place to launch.”
It is working with United Airlines — an investor in Archer — to help with the commercial service between airports in the Los Angeles region. The company also eyeing densely populated markets with major airports to use as hubs in San Francisco, Dallas and New York City, and has snagged early sign-ups from regional partners, including Orange County’s John Wayne Airport and Van Nuys Airport.
Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation Inc., which is working on a self-operated service as well as one jointly with Delta Airlines, wants to fly between airports in Southern California, and New York City as early as 2026,” a Joby spokeswoman said.
A third eVTOL maker, Beta Technologies, is a South Burlington, Vermont-based aerospace manufacturer developing both eVTOLs taxis and electric fixed wing aircraft — mostly on the East and Gulf coasts — where it is working with FBO operators like Texas-based Atlantic Aviation and Florida-based Signature Aviation to install 50-plus electric chargers at airports.
Archer Aircraft Inc., a Silicon Valley-based electric air taxi company, has been selected by the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA to shuttle athletes and visitors on short flights throughout traffic-congested Southern California for the international sporting event scheduled to begin in three years. (Photo courtesy of Archer Aircraft Inc.)It also is eyeing the cargo space before expanding to passenger taxis, a Beta spokesman said. The privately held company founded in 2017 has partnered with international shippers like UPS and others in New Zealand and Norway. It is beginning to look westward for expansion, including the Olympics, the spokesman said.
“Over the past few months, we’ve focused on ramping up production efforts and undertaking real-world flight missions, like our recent coast-to-coast journey, to validate market readiness,” the spokesman said. “Now, we’re working closely with our customers on ways they’d like to deploy ALIA (the name of their electric planes) in their network, and that includes conversations about the 2028 Olympics.”
Dropping out
In the past year, two other eVTOL developers have fallen out of the mainstream in this space.
Eviation, Aircraft Inc., an Arlington, Washington, maker of all-electric aircraft, laid off most of its staff and paused work on its aircraft earlier this year, and Overair Inc., which had been developing an eVTOL with $170 million in funding from South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace, shutdown its factory in Santa Ana and left no forwarding address.
Last year, Overair closed two manufacturing locations along South Susan Street, and laid off its workforce amid reports that progress on its first prototype was moving slower than promised. Anduril Industries Inc., a Costa Mesa-based defense technology company that specializes in drones, is leasing one of the 108,858-square-foot factories at 3030 S. Susan Street, according to a filing made for facility improvments with the Orange County Clerk-Recorder’s Office and posted in the lobby of the building.
Overair Chief Executive Officer Ben Tigner did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment on the company’s status. Neither have other executives in the eVTOL industry — like Cutshall — been able to reach Tigner in recent months. Overair was an early partner with Clay Lacy, as was Eviation.
The state’s Secetary of State website notes that Overair’s incorporation as a busines was terminated Nov. 19, 2024. A Hanwha spokesman did not respond to an email.
“There are two ways to think about this. There are the big cities, the big prizes, New York and Los Angeles. They’re a little bit like the prom queen. Everyone wants to pick them,” Cercutta said. “The initial routes will be around business and population centers, between Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Inglewood and SoFi Stadium, and downtown, where the events are. In the end, once the Olympics are gone, you want an infrastrutre that the city needs, not a palace in the desert that no one visits.”
Cercutta worries that the routes for the electric flying taxi services may become like the Los Angeles Metro Rail system.
“Most of the L.A. public transportaiton goes where I don’t want to go,” he said. You want to make sure that there are no dead times or waiting, because the business case can be easily destroyed if you start to have an airport experience where you get there, wait 10 minutes, have a slow check-in through TSA ,and you do this and that. In the end, it couild have been the same time to get somewhere if you drove.”
The 2026 Olympic summer games are July 14-30, and the Paralympic Games are Aug. 15-27.
Above, Beta Technologies, a South Burlington, Vermont-based aerospace manufacturer, is developing both an electric powered flying taxi to carry cargo and people. One model lifts off like a helicopter and flies like a plane, while the other has a fixed wing, as seen above flying from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Las Vegas. It is mostly working to develop partnerships on the East and Gulf coasts, but could see flight time during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Beta) Above, Beta Technologies, a South Burlington, Vermont-based aerospace manufacturer, is developing both an electric powered flying taxi to carry cargo and people. One model lifts off like a helicopter and flies like a plane, while the other has a fixed wing. It is mostly working to develop partnerships on the East and Gulf coasts, but could see flight time during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Beta) Above, an electric-powered flying air taxi developed by Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation Inc., which is working on a self-operated service as well as one jointly with Delta Air Lines. Joby wants to shuttle passengers between airports in Southern California during the 2028 Olympic Games. It hopes to get its aircraft certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as early as 2026. (Courtesy of Joby) Above, Wisk, a subsidiary of aerospace giant Boeing Co., expects to have an all-electric flying taxi aircraft certified and ready to fly by the end of the decade, according to David Oord, a policy manager with Wisk. The Mountain View-based Wisk is targeting the 2032 Brisbane summer Olympic Games in Australia to show off its autonomous plane that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. (Courtesy of Wisk) Above, Wisk, a subsidiary of aerospace giant Boeing Co., expects to have an all-electric flying taxi aircraft certified and ready to fly by the end of the decade, according to David Oord, a policy manager with Wisk. The Mountain View-based Wisk is targeting the 2032 Brisbane summer Olympic Games in Australia to show off its autonomous plane that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. (Courtesy of Wisk) Above, Wisk, a subsidiary of aerospace giant Boeing Co., expects to have an all-electric flying taxi aircraft certified and ready to fly by the end of the decade, according to David Oord, a policy manager with Wisk. The Mountain View-based Wisk is targeting the 2032 Brisbane summer Olympic Games in Australia to show off its autonomous plane that takes off like a helicopter and flies like a plane. (Courtesy of Wisk) Show Caption1 of 6Above, Beta Technologies, a South Burlington, Vermont-based aerospace manufacturer, is developing both an electric powered flying taxi to carry cargo and people. One model lifts off like a helicopter and flies like a plane, while the other has a fixed wing, as seen above flying from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Las Vegas. It is mostly working to develop partnerships on the East and Gulf coasts, but could see flight time during the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Beta) ExpandRelated Articles
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