If an eVTOL takes off in a forest and no one is around to hear it...

Welcome to Go Above Traffic.

The eVTOL newsletter that has you more excited than a kid in a candy store.

Here we go!

What you need to know in eVTOLs this week

Archer Aviation

Future Flight Global signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the potential purchase of up to 116 Archer eVTOLs worth up to $580M.

An initial deposit was made to Archer (exact amount isn’t being disclosed) and the MoU sets out nearly $5M in payments to be handed over as milestones are passed.

FFG is a company formed by executives at Titan Aviation (a business-jet operator), with which FFG has a joint venture to operate “advanced air mobility assets globally.”

The plan is for Archer and FFG to jointly launch air taxi services in some of the largest markets globally, including Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

FFG will also independently use Midnight eVTOLs to provide on-demand transit to high-value clients.

Volocopter

They weren’t moving fans around The City of Lights like they hoped, but Volocopter did put on some demonstration flights at The Palace of Versailles during the Paris Olympics.

After teetering on bankruptcy and then facing the bureaucracy in France that halted passenger flights, Germany based Volocopter is still optimistic, saying the will fly in Japan at the 2025 World Expo.

Video if the Olympic flights here:

Overair

Headline from one year ago: Overair receives $145 million investment from Hanwha Group to develop all-electric VTOL aircraft

Headline this week: Hanwha Writes off Investment in eVTOL maker Overair

Things chance quick in the eVTOL game.

After losing over 100 million bucks, South Korea’s largest conglomerate decided to pull the plug on their investment in California based Overair.

We’re likely to see more of this in the next few years.

This is a winner-take-most market. Expect to see a lot of consolidation and players furthest from commercialization closing up shop going forward.

Jump Aero

SF based Jump Aero is calling their shot: They want to launch 1st electric-powered rescue aircraft by next summer.

Carl Dietrich, founder and president at Jump Aero, think eVTOLs could be a replacement for some helicopter air ambulances eventually but is more focused on emergency first response in rural areas.

He wants to cut rural response times in half and has secured a bit of cash to give it a real shot.

Last year they signed a deal with the military worth $3.6M to accelerate development.

The Utah Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division and the Oregon Department of Aviation are also exploring how the Jump Aero could augment their efforts to serve remote communities, so he might be on to something.

The Markets

Or “The Casino” if you prefer the Wall Street Bets mentality…

Minimal movement this week, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

New Horizon Aircraft popped despite no significant news coming out about them. Other than that, a much need quite week in this space.

As we get closer to end of year and 2025 comes into focus, we might see some bigger swings.

Plan accordingly.

The $100K Life Savings Bet

"There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it and when he can."

- Mark Twain

Oftentimes, making a successful high stakes investment comes down to timing.

Timing the market is a tough task. There is a reason index funds beat money managers in the long run.

But when timing lines up for a specific investment - you have the cash in hand, you don’t need to do something else with it, an emerging technology comes out, the stock is at half of what it SPAC’ed… you might want to go all in.

That’s what I did.

And I check both or Mark Twain’s boxes, I both can and can not afford to speculate. So we’re going for it.

So are we in the money?!

Even money.

If I could name a famous roller coaster, I’d say it here and compare the last few weeks to it.

We went from up $30K to down $9K to even.

Wouldn’t mind catching our breath and hovering around this point for a bit but who knows what the future holds…

Lighten Up

Final Question

What credit card company is going to be the first to start offering eVTOL miles as a perk?”

— best reply gets a shoutout next week.

Best Answer From Last Week

I asked “What’s your biggest pet peeve on a plane that you hope doesn’t carry over to eVTOLs?”

Best reply came from Meadow in New York:

“The worst is people taking their shoes off on a plane and walking around. Especially to the bathroom. If someone tries to go barefoot in a small eVTOL, they need to be dropped off at the nearest vertiport.”

Thanks for reading and let us know what you want to see more of next week. We read every single reply.

Stay above.

— The Above Traffic Team