The VFS Electric VTOL efforts started in 2013 and soon led to the Society's "Transformative Vertical Flight" initiative. The success of the eVTOL industry today is due in a small part to the efforts of VFS and its members over the years.
Today, VFS has an Electric VTOL Technical Committee. VFS has also created a bespoke website with news and the comprehensive World eVTOL Aircraft Directory, the Electric VTOL News — check it out and subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter! VFS also runs the annual Electric Aircraft Symposium, which supports all of electric aviation.
Past Events:
- 1st TVF Workshop (Aug. 2014): Presentations | summary article | event page
- 2nd TVF Workshop (Aug. 2015): Presentations and video | summary article | event page | proceedings
- VFS Forum 72 (May 2016): Transformative Vertical Flight Special Session
- 3rd TVF Workshop (Sept. 2016): Presentations | summary article | event page (part of SAE's Aerotech 2016)
- VFS Forum 73 (May 2017): Transformative Urban Air Mobility Special Session
- 4th TVF Workshop (June 2017): Presentations | video (part of AIAA's AVIATION 2017)
- 5th TVF Workshop (Jan 2018): Presentations and videos | summary article | event page
- VFS Forum 74 (May 2018): Transformative Urban Air Mobility Special Session | videos
- 6th eVTOL Symposium (Jan 2019): Presentations | videos | summary article | event page
- VFS Forum 75 (May 2019): Electric VTOL Special Sessions | videos
- 1st Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure (Sept 2019): event page
- 7th eVTOL Symposium (Jan 2020): Presentations | videos | summary article | event page
- 2nd Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure (April 2020): videos | event page
- VFS Pre-Forum 76 (May 2020): Electric VTOL Special Sessions | videos
- 3rd Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure (Sept 2020): videos | event page
- VFS Forum 76 (Oct 2020): Electric VTOL Special Sessions | videos
- 8th eVTOL Symposium (Jan 2021): Presentations | videos | summary article | event page
- 4th Workshop on eVTOL Infrastructure (March 2021): videos | event page
- 9th eVTOL Symposium (Jan 2022): event page | videos | photos | event summary
- 1st H2-Aero Symposium & Workshop (March 2022): event page | videos | event summary
- 10th eVTOL Symposium (Jan 2023): event page | video recordings | select videos | event summary
- 2nd H2-Aero Symposium (March 2023): event page
- 11th eVTOL Symposium: event page — save the date: Feb. 6-8, 2024!
Also, be sure to check out all of our video-on-demand short courses and other video recordings!
TVF Workshops and Working Groups
In 2014, the Vertical Flight Society began leading a series of workshops — initially with NASA, AIAA and SAE as well — on Transformative Vertical Flight (TVF), and built a community of aerospace professionals that included technical, regulatory and business elements, exploring the potential for new forms of air transportation systems with innovative propulsion systems. The focus has been on systems that embody combinations of on-demand, electric and hybrid-electric propulsion, and vertiport-capable configurations and designs.
The third workshop in 2016, collocated with the SAE AeroTech, built on the work of the previous two by soliciting expert opinions from the participants on the work and timeframes needed to transform air transportation consistent with the TVF vision. These inputs served as a starting point for the development of an advocacy roadmap needed to generate support for TVF transportation systems, technology, and markets. The TVF roadmap continued to be advanced, but required further refinement and vetting before it could be a credible advocacy tool. To accomplish this, VFS created small, focused TVF Working Groups, to enable volunteers to join and contribute in their areas of expertise.
Since 2018, the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) has been leading these joint TVF Working Groups:
- Private / Recreational Vehicles (Short Range)
- Commercial Intra-city (Short Range) — Report: Status of eVTOL Technology (Jan 2018)
- Commercial Inter-city (Longer Range) — now combined with TVF2
- Public Services — Report: eVTOL Aircraft Technology for Public Services – A White Paper (Aug 2021) TVF4
In 2019, NASA formed what is now known as its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Ecosystems Working Groups, bringing together the entire industry to advance AAM. VFS continues to support these working groups as well.