eVTOL confidence booster

For a defense program with relatively little funding behind it ($25M), the Air Force’s Agility Prime comes with major expectations to assist in building a domestic electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) industrial base. It offers a lifeline for a market where private monies have dried up due to the coronavirus. For the AF, if it proves successful, Agility Prime could be a model of how defense procurement can work with commercial markets to compete with China’s national drive for technology supremacy. “For me, it’s a template for how to take the military market... and bring it to bear on an emerging commercial market … that accelerates it for all of us,” says AF Acquisition Chief Will Roper. Agility Prime aims to tap into existing commercial investment in eVTOL development and, through in-kind support … (to) help U.S. manufacturers along the way to FAA certification. At the same time, the program will seek out opportunities within government agencies for early purchases of eVTOLs to help ramp up production. The program has been conceived to avoid what happened in the small drone market, where the Pentagon failed to engage the emerging U.S. industry and the supply chain migrated overseas. (Source: Aviation Week 05/08/20) https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/urban-unmanned-aviation/usaf-agility-prime-aims-boost-investor-confidence-evtol-market?utm_rid=CPEN1000002255725&utm_campaign=24043&utm_medium=email&elq2=5de3801b2cce4528a52725f8a6bcc3d8