Another week closer to the future here at Go Above Traffic.

This is the only eVTOL newsletter that makes you feel like a kid on Christmas.

Let’s get into it!

What you need to know in eVTOLs this week

Joby Aviation

Toyota is increasing its bet in Joby by a half a billion dollars.

The company that brought us the Camry and perfected lean manufacturing said it will invest another $500 million in Joby Aviation to support certification and commercial production.

This money, coming in the form of cash for common stock, is in addition to the $394 million they’ve already invested.

Pivitol

The first recreational eVTOL is officially out in the wild.

Pivotal completed 13 deliveries of its Blackfly single-seat pre-production prototype eVTOL.

The plan is to collect feedback and data from this early access program to improve the production aircraft currently being manufactured.

Recreational flyers are legally permitted to operate these eVTOLs without a pilot’s license under the FAA’s Part 103 rules for ultralight aircraft.

All you need is $190,000 and a child-like sense of wonder.

EHang

China based EHang adds another country to its list of partners.

A trial flight took place in Quadra, Sao Paolo, with the help of local operator Gohobby Future Technologies.

EHang was granted authorization (CAVE/Experimental Flight Authorization Certificate) by Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) so the flight will be one of many to come.

Over 50,000 successful flights habe now been carried out in 17 countries by EHang. These locations span Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America

LIFT Aircraft

LIFT isn’t technically and eVTOL. But it’s worth keeping an eye on.

The U.S. Army selected LIFT Aircraft and Near Earth Autonomy to develop uncrewed blood delivery & casualty evacuation system.

The goal is to address one of the Army’s biggest challenges – the need to autonomously perform blood delivery and evacuations within the crucial “golden hour” the critical period immediately following trauma.

That window is when rapid medical intervention significantly increases survival rates.

The current practice of relying on crewed vehicles to provide blood resupply and perform evacuations in contested areas might be a thing of the past soon enough.

Beta Technologies

Beta unveiled the next eVTOL in their lineup — a passenger-carrying version of its cargo aircraft dubbed ALIA .

Take a look here:

The Markets

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

Joby popped on the Toyota investment news. It was up about 9% higher yesterday but pilled back a bit by Thursday.

Xpeng is on the upswing after announcing they’ve sold 150 eVTOLs. The lift in stock price was driven more by the success in their much larger auto manufacturing division.

On the other end of the spectrum, New Horizon is falling like a rock with no bounce back in sight.

They will be fighting for their lives for the next 12 months or so.

The $100K Life Savings Bet

“If you own the best stock, why buy the rest?

  -Unknown

To bring the new folks up to speed, I’ve put my $100K life savings into Joby.

Diversification sounds like a boring way to get rich slowly.

eVTOLs sound like a fun way to get rich quickly.

Money aside, a couple other things make sense to me:

1. Sitting in traffic is hell on earth.

2. There is a lot of unused space us.

3. Technology is at the point where short distance, electric powered flight, is now achievable and affordable.

Put those truths together, and it seems like eVTOLs make sense as an investment.

Circling back to the quote above; If eVTOLs are the best category (which is true imo), and Joby is the best company in the space, why buy anything else?

So are we in the money?!

Yes. We’re up a bit.

About $7,400 at the moment.

If we were after a 7% per year, we’d call it good and go get lunch.

But we’re not. We’re after a 10 bagger. Or 50-100 bagger

So although it’s nice to be up, we’re going to sit tight.

Onwards and upwards.

Lighten Up

Final Question

If you get one one snack ready for you on every eVTOL flight, what are you picking?

— best reply gets a shoutout next week.

Best Answer From Last Week

I asked, “What non aviation company would be the best sponsor/partner for an eVTOL company? And Why?

Best reply came from Chase in California.

“Any brand with Ryan Reynolds. Everything that man touches turns to gold. He can make a low cost wireless company exciting and blow up a Gin brand no one has heard of. Stick him in an eVTOL marketing campaign you’re good to go.”

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