Most people still think of flying cars as Saturday morning cartoon stuff.
Riley Rosebee doesn't.
Riley writes Godspeed, a newsletter covering the Aerial Economy from a financial markets lens. He works with JC Parets and the team at Stock Market Media, and he's quietly become one of the sharpest voices on what's happening above our heads.
On the latest Bangers Only, I sat down with Riley to ask the question I've been chewing on since I was a kid watching The Jetsons: When do I actually get to fly to my golf trip?
Sooner than I thought.
The week we recorded, Joby Aviation operated demonstration flights between Midtown Manhattan and JFK.
The technical name is eVTOL - electric vertical takeoff and landing. Think electric helicopter, but with six to eight propellers instead of one. More redundancy, more safety, all-electric.
Blade has run helicopter shuttles between Manhattan and JFK for years. $250 a head, ten minutes door to door. The demand's been proven. eVTOLs are the next iteration - quieter, cheaper, electric.
But the bigger unlock is geography. There are roughly 500 general aviation airports already in place across the U.S. Phoenix to Sedona - currently a two-and-a-half-hour drive - becomes a 30-minute flight. The infrastructure is mostly there. We just need to electrify it.
Three hurdles in the way.
FAA certification. Aviation can't move fast and break things. The leading players are in the final stages, with Manhattan air taxi service likely to be live by Summer 2027.
Manufacturing. We're nowhere near mass production. As Riley put it, we need "a Henry Ford type guy for flying cars."
Energy. These run on batteries, so every landing pad needs charging stations. That buildout is in its infancy.
Five companies lead the field: Joby, Archer, Beta (just went public this year), Eve (an Embraer spin-off out of Brazil), and Wisk (owned by Boeing). Joby and Archer are the names to know.
Then there's China. XPeng has a two-seater eVTOL that docks on the back of a truck. EHang is already running fully autonomous commercial sightseeing flights, with no pilot in the aircraft.
Riley's framework: watch three regulators. The FAA, China, and Dubai. Everyone else follows one of the three.
I asked Riley what worries him most. The answer wasn't regulatory or technical.
"The biggest thing that could hold us back is just a lack of creativity and belief in what's possible."
He pointed at Where's My Flying Car?, the book about how aviation innovation stalled in the mid-70s and never quite caught up. The hardware is finally arriving. The question is whether we still know how to dream big.
The Jetsons were set in the year 2000. We're 26 years late. But we're not far off!
Go give it a listen.
Timestamps
[0:00] Welcome & Meet Riley
[1:03] Joby Lands in Midtown Manhattan
[1:32] What's an eVTOL?
[3:31] The Sedona Use Case
[4:53] The FAA Hurdle
[7:49] The Five Players
[9:22] Energy and Electrifying Airports
[12:06] China's Lead: XPeng & EHang
[14:31] US FAA, China, and Dubai
[16:21] Where's My Flying Car?
[17:36] Where to Find Riley
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