Personal Flight

A year after it was pronounced airworthy by the FAA, and 14 years after it was first announced, the Samson Sky Switchblade is officially off the ground. This street-legal three-wheeler converts to a 200-mph (320-km/h) airplane at the touch of a button.

Got a pilot's license? That and a fat bank account will let you take off vertically then soar horizontally with Lilium's sleek electric-powered craft, now on sale in the US market. The offering marks the first private availability of eVTOLs.

Monégasque aerial photography and drone show company McClic has successfully test-flown its MC One personal eVTOL, a simple but nice-looking coaxial octacopter with a pilot's seat on top. Anyone can fly it, given about 10 minutes' training.

Kit helicopter manufacturer RotorX has stepped into the personal eVTOL fray with its own take on the manned multicopter. The Dragon promises to zip you around at up to 63 mph (101 km/h), with joystick control, auto-landing, and a ballistic parachute.

You'll have to pilot this next-gen aircraft yourself – although that'll be easier than you'd think. Lift Aircraft says it'll take you less than an hour to learn to fly its Hexa eVTOL, and then you're off on a unique and spectacular sightseeing trip.

California startup Alef Aeronautics has shown off a remarkably fresh take on the street-legal eVTOL flying car in its 2025 Model A. This wild design debuts a 2-axis tilting cabin, and a horizontal cruise flight mode unlike anything we've seen before.

The team behind the ADIFO omnidirectional, supersonic flying saucer has designed and prototyped an interesting and unique eVTOL design with an extraordinarily quick and simple method of transitioning between vertical and horizontal flight modes.

Doroni says it's just months away from a full-scale, flying prototype of its H1 two-seat personal eVTOL design. Where most in this space build the simplest and cheapest multicopter-style airframes possible, the H1 offers dedicated horizontal thrust, too.

Zeva is moving to prototype a second-generation version of its radically different take on eVTOL flight. The Z2 remains a tail-sitting flying saucer that flies a single person head-first at high speeds, but the new model makes some practical changes.

American company Ryse Aerotech has released video of its first manned flight test, undertaken back in June. The Recon eVTOL is pitched as a buy 'n' fly ultralight aircraft that farmers and ranchers can put to immediate use without a pilot's license.

When we last saw Franky Zapata back in May, he was spinning uncontrollably down into the water from a serious height in a terrifying jetboard crash. But the flying Frenchman is back to launch a new, high-speed personal aircraft called the JetRacer.

After 14 years of development, the Samson Switchblade – a fast, street-legal three-wheeler that converts at the touch of a button into a 200-mph airplane – has been approved for airworthiness by the FAA. The team is now preparing for flight tests.