The Benefits of Decentralized Infrastructure For Drones And Flying Cars
Aligning Incentives, Certainty, and Community Engagement
The promise of scaled commercial drones and flying cars is close yet seemingly stuck in limbo. Despite recent advancements, a fundamental question remains: how will these vehicles access the private airspace and land needed to take off in the United States and beyond?
The answer is not in centralized command and control that many would have you believe. The answer is not just technology or funding.
It is a complex dance of property rights, incentives, and community buy-in. This is a challenge that must be solved to unlock the full potential of this multi-billion dollar industry.
The flying car industry is being built from the ground up. This means it needs Land and Air. The main question is how they access private airspace and private land. They don’t own enough land or air rights, nor does the government.
Some players are pushing ahead, and some have been laid to waste recently. In the US, Joby Aviation remains on track to receive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly in 2025/26. Joby is developing an all-electric aircraft, but it also has a hydrogen-powered one. Its primary aircraft is designed to carry a pilot and four passengers at up to 200 mph speeds.
Chinese eVTOL company EHang Holdings is developing flying cars. It flew passengers for a sightseeing trip in a demo flight in China’s Zhejiang province. They have an agreement with China Southern Airlines to operate EHang’s EH216-S aircraft in the Zhuhai region. Wencheng County Transportation Development Group has delivered 27 EH216-S aircraft for use in Zhejiang.
Beyond operating in China, EHang also has global ambitions. It offered test flights in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and elsewhere.
Archer Aviation is also developing eVTOL aircraft. In June 2024, it received its Part 135 Air Carrier & Operator Certificate from the FAA, which allows it to fly for commercial purposes when it completes the five-stage process. Its Midnight aircraft seeks to fill very short commutes. Instead of driving 60 minutes or more, passengers could take 20-minute flights. It can carry up to six passengers.
Stellantis, the car manufacturer, has financed Archer’s manufacturing facility, and it has orders for hundreds of aircraft from United Air Lines, India’s Interglobe, and the UAEs Air Chateau.
Xpeng’s subsidiary, Xpeng AeroHT, runs the Land Aircraft Carrier project. This company has been operating since 2013, trying to bring a flying car to the market. Xpeng AeroHT initially planned to launch a road-legal car with deployable rotors on the roof. It was too difficult to lock rotors properly to prevent damage from vibrations when the car is driving on the road so they switched to a modular flying car.
The Land Aircraft Carrier was unveiled at CES 2025. It is a Chinese modular flying plane, and we are told it has secured over 3,000 pre-orders, but specific pricing details have yet to be finalized, which seems like hot air. This vehicle has a ‘mothership’ ground module with a 6-wheel configuration for off-road capabilities and storage space to accommodate the eVTOL air module, and a mobile charging unit that can power the air module claims it is suitable for up to six flights on a single charge. The eVTOL air module itself boasts electric vertical take-off and landing capabilities.
Trying To Make The Starting Line
Lillium, the German eVTOL company, has collapsed, as has Volocopter, another German company. Vertical Aerospace, a UK-based eVTOL manufacturer, has secured a $50M cash injection and debt-to-equity swap from its largest creditor, Mudrick Capital. Founder Stephen Fitzpatrick's stake will shrink from 70% to 20%. The deal extends Vertical's cash runway to the end of 2025. It has lost 95% of its market value since its 2021 NYSE listing.
What Are The Blockers
We could point to the lack of innovation in Europe, funding, heavy regulations, or the lack of individual liberty in air rights that allow individuals to control the space over their land in Europe. It is not one of these but all of them.
To add to the mix, the primary folks backing or involved in developing the German companies were those whose primary business models are dependent on airports and trapping people for hours in glass boxes. They did not want to change this, but it didn’t stop them from trying to develop a way to bring people to the airport in a new shiny machine. This remains a significant issue for the low-altitude industry as they celebrate milestones that involve travel to the airport using the new machines. It’s not good enough and adds no meaningful benefit to communities.
There is more to this than funding or regulation. It is a problem of network distribution, using land and air. The need for infrastructure to support drone and eVTOL operations in every town and city is a significant sticking point.
Having fly cars in the current infrastructure set-up is about as helpful as non-military drones delivering coffee in a hub and spoke model. This is barely incremental innovation. A major unlock is required, or it will continue to languish.
How To Bring It Together
Capital formation is required. The land and air locations drones and flying cars need, and the community's and societies’ views on how these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) transit in their airspace and over their homes, farms and condos buildings are vital. Town halls and flyers from large corporations promising to '“do the right thing” for local communities are not working because the incentives are skewed.
When incentives are aligned, and drone and eVTOL companies can have certainty, the skies open. Incentives structured correctly are like magic. This means trading air rights is the answer.
Homeowners and real estate companies have the leading role to play. They all hold the most valuable assets that the low-altitude economy needs. Land and Air.
It is rights over these that boost the economy. Using the decentralized nature of this ownership with incentives and quick transactions for air rights owners gives drone and flying car companies the certainty they need and assures communities.
It is building a world where you can travel between towns in a flying taxi without relying on airport infrastructure and costs, where drones that pass over the airspace you own (or have bought as an investment) pay you. A world where road traffic and congestion are reduced, and towns are connected in new ways to boost local economies.
This is not a dream word; it is a world built using individual property rights as the backbone of a new economy.