Big Read

The flying cars getting ready for take-off

Today, more than 200 flying car start-ups are poised to ride a transportation tsunami that analysts predict will disrupt the industry

Joby Aviation giving a demonstration of it electric aircraft in New York. Pictue: Joby avaition

“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” The immortal line from Back to the Future Part 2, when Doc Brown time travels from 1985 to 2015 in an airborne DeLorean sports car, suggests the much-vaunted flying car revolution is at least eight years behind schedule.

And while dozens of start-ups are frantically talking up their electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), predictions about the imminent arrival of a $9 trillion global transport disruptor ...