Lilium and Archer will raise between 23 and 30 percent less than expected from their New York share flotations this week—$584 million and $847.6 million, respectively. This is due to high percentages of shareholders in their respective SPAC merger partners, Qell and Atlas Crest, opting to exercise their rights to redeem stock before the "business combinations" closed. It remains to be seen whether this is due purely to shifting sentiment in the wider SPAC sector or to a more specific cooling towards advanced air mobility stock.

Operators of new eVTOL aircraft in the advanced air mobility sector are expected to recruit thousands of pilots and mechanics to support anticipated high-volume operations. Aviation training group CAE, which has supported airlines, business aircraft operators, and the military for decades, is investing time and money to develop training programs and equipment for manufacturers such as Beta Technologies.

Buoyed by early orders for up to 1,000 of its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft from blue-chip customers including American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and leasing group Avolon, Vertical Aerospace is stepping up efforts to achieve type certification by 2024. Its VA-X4 prototype is close to being ready for a key first flight before the end of 2021.

Urban Aeronautics is stepping up work on a redesigned version of its five-seat eVTOL aircraft, with a hybrid-electric model expected to enter service in 2026 and a hydrogen-powered one to follow in 2030. Existing backer Besadno has provided more capital, along with new investor Talcorp and a private investor from Brazil.

The widespread availability of recharging stations at airports will be imperative to the successful expansion of electric aircraft operations. Business aviation services group Clay Lacy is one of the first companies in this sector to announce an investment in the required ground infrastructure at its chain of fixed-based operations in the U.S.

Paragon Aerospace intends to establish a manufacturing facility in the Texas border town of Brownsville, where it wants to complete the development of and start manufacturing its Soar hydrogen-powered VTOL aircraft. The company aims to raise more than $1 billion to bring an aircraft to market with a range of up to 900 miles.

For much of its 11-year history, the company now known as Wisk Aero has appeared reluctant to share much publicly about its extensive work to bring eVTOL aircraft to market. Over the past two weeks, the company has started releasing what appears to be a series of videos showing various stages of its development work, with the latest being a first hover flight with what is described as its third-generation design. This followed the earlier release of footage from 2017 showing the same technology demonstrator transitioning from hover to cruise flight.

While it’s not clear what has prompted Wisk to now release videos from four and five years ago, it does bring to mind the company’s ongoing lawsuit against rival Archer, which it accuses of stealing designs for what it refers to as a sixth-generation eVTOL vehicle. Archer strenuously denies these allegations and is now suing Wisk for damages.

However, one key aspect of the legal arguments appears to hinge on how long Archer has had its eVTOL aircraft in development by comparison with Wisk, which can correctly claim to have been working in the field for far longer. While Wisk Aero was formed in 2019 as a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk, the latter company started work on eVTOL designs in 2010 with backing from Google co-founder Larry Page.

What remains unclear is the technology connection between the third-generation vehicle shown flying in the newly disclosed videos and the designs being so hotly disputed in a San Francisco federal court. However, some might say that if Wisk had been more consistently transparent about the evolution of its eVTOL designs, it would have been harder for Archer to allege, as its lawyers have, that it sought to patent plans for an eVTOL design larger than its two-seat Cora only after learning of Archer’s plans.

Meanwhile, Kitty Hawk will be taking another step out of the closet when it exhibits at the National Business Aviation Association’s BACE trade show in Las Vegas next month. It is expected to showcase its Heaviside eVTOL aircraft.

Now that Lilium Jet has achieved its merger with special purpose acquisition company Qell and Nasdaq flotation in September 2021, attention will shift to the pace at which Lilium can complete development and certification work for its seven-seat eVTOL aircraft.