Towards the Future of Air Travel: Public Perceptions on eVTOL Aircraft and Service Design

Commercial interest in Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft is accelerating, yet user perspectives on aircraft design and service models remain underexplored. Early integration of these insights is critical to ensuring successful implementation and public acceptance of this emerging transport mode. An interview study was conducted with 33 participants who attended the Farnborough International Airshow 2022, UK. Uniquely, participants had physical access to a production-size model of Supernal LLC’s SA-1 eVTOL aircraft during the interviews. Given the novelty of eVTOLs, this was of significant methodological benefit to the study. Thematic coding and analysis of the interviews using two independent researchers was conducted, resulting in two distinct thematic groupings of participants: 1) eVTOLs as a service, and 2) eVTOLs on demand. Importantly, across the two groups, there were significant differences in the perceptions towards the physical design of the eVTOL and its purpose, impacting scheduling, seat capacity, set layout, and pilot interactions. These significant findings around the design of the aircraft and service should be used in conjunction with the growing body of literature on eVTOL implementation to ensure the successful implementation of future eVTOLs and wider shared mobility services.