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Passenger drones

What is a passenger drone?

Real machines on the record

A passenger drone is an eVTOL air taxi, and the real ones are on DEPLOY's record. A passenger drone, more precisely an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft, is a battery-powered aircraft built to carry people rather than a camera. DEPLOY holds the real machines as verified aerial records: EHang's EH216-S, which carries two riders, and the pilot-plus-four aircraft from Joby and Archer. Each is dated and sourced below.

✓ Last verified Jul 26, 20264 sources

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A passenger drone is a drone big enough to carry a person. In the industry the precise term is eVTOL, an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and the consumer name for the service is the air taxi. Instead of lifting a camera, these aircraft lift one or more people, taking off straight up like a multi-rotor drone and then cruising to a landing pad across a city.

DEPLOY holds the real ones as verified records. EHang's EH216-S is a two-seat aircraft with sixteen rotors that carries no onboard pilot, and it is the furthest along: it holds a type certificate from China's aviation regulator and has begun commercial passenger flights. Joby's S4 and Archer's Midnight are the leading US air taxis, each designed to carry a pilot plus four passengers, and both are deep in FAA certification rather than in everyday service. Every one of these is a dated, sourced record you can open, and the passenger counts and ranges below are the makers' own stated figures, attributed to them.

The one thing there is no honest answer for is the price of an SUV-size personal drone you could park in a driveway. No such machine is sold at a public price. The closest real figure is EHang's suggested retail price for the two-seat EH216-S, which the company put at 340,000 to 410,000 US dollars, and that is a manufacturer figure for a certified air taxi, not a consumer flying car. Where there is no solid public number, this page says so rather than inventing one.

The passenger eVTOLs DEPLOY verifies

These are the passenger-carrying eVTOLs DEPLOY holds as reviewed records, read live from the registry. Passenger counts and ranges in the answer above are the makers’ own stated figures.

Passenger eVTOLs on the DEPLOY record
How we know this

The machines below are read live from DEPLOY's reviewed registry: each is a verified aerial passenger eVTOL record you can open. The maker specs and the SUV-price absence are described in the answer above.

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The eVTOL records here are verified on DEPLOY's registry. The passenger counts, ranges, and the EHang suggested price are the makers' own figures, attributed to them, and there is no honest price for an SUV-size personal drone.

Common questions

Is there a drone that can carry a person?
Yes. Passenger-carrying drones, called eVTOL aircraft or air taxis, exist and DEPLOY holds them as verified records. EHang’s EH216-S carries two people and has begun commercial passenger flights in China. Joby Aviation’s Joby S4 and Archer Aviation’s Archer Midnight are designed to carry a pilot plus four passengers and are in FAA certification. See the full eVTOL FAA certification tracker.
How many people can a passenger drone carry?
It depends on the aircraft. EHang's EH216-S carries two passengers and flies with no onboard pilot. Joby's S4 and Archer's Midnight are each designed to carry a pilot plus four passengers, so five people in total. These are the makers' own stated figures, attributed to them. Larger passenger eVTOLs are in development, but the certified and flying machines today seat between two and five people.
How much does a passenger drone cost?
The only real public figure is EHang's suggested retail price for the two-seat EH216-S, which the company stated as 410,000 US dollars for markets outside China and 340,000 US dollars inside China. That is a manufacturer target for a certified air taxi, attributed to EHang, not a verified sale price. Joby and Archer have not published unit prices, and there is no honest price for an SUV-size personal drone because no such machine is sold.
How much would an SUV-size drone cost?
There is no honest answer, because no SUV-size personal drone is sold at a public price. DEPLOY does not invent one. The largest passenger drones that actually exist are two-to-five-seat eVTOL air taxis, not car-size personal aircraft, and the only real price on the record is EHang's 340,000 to 410,000 US dollar figure for its two-seat EH216-S. Anything quoted for a driveway-parked flying SUV is speculation, not a figure DEPLOY can verify.
How big can drones get?
The largest drones are not passenger machines at all but long-endurance military aircraft the size of small planes, and the largest passenger drones are eVTOL air taxis that seat two to five people. EHang's EH216-S spans about six meters across its sixteen rotors. Cargo and heavy-lift drones can be larger still. There is no verified giant personal drone the size of an SUV on DEPLOY's record; the real machines are aircraft, dated and sourced here.
Can you buy a passenger drone?
In a limited way. EHang sells the EH216-S as a certified aircraft, mainly to operators rather than individuals, and it is flying commercial passenger routes in China. Joby and Archer are not selling to the public; they plan to run air-taxi services once the FAA certifies their aircraft. So a passenger drone is closer to buying an aircraft or booking a flight than to buying a consumer gadget, and DEPLOY tracks each maker's real status as a record.

Keep reading

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