Worldwide, there is significant interest to develop electrified propulsion systems for aircraft across a wide range of market segments. This is mainly driven by higher efficiency of electrical components, reduced emissions, lower operating costs, and additional flexibility in aircraft design and architecture. The segment that has received the most attention over the past 2–3 years is the urban air mobility market, which would use small electrified aircraft with 2–4 passengers for urban air taxis.

Uber has been one of the drivers for this market segment and is planning commercial introduction of electrified aircraft for the urban air mobility market starting in 2022.¹ Many companies—including Airbus, Boeing–Aurora Flight Sciences, Bell, and Embraer—are developing electrified aircraft concepts to meet the needs of the urban air mobility market.² Zunum and Eviation are also developing electrified concepts for ~10-passenger commuter aircraft for point-to-point travel.³ This will meet the vision of thin-haul aviation, which refers to a growing market that encompasses a large distribution of short routes, each with limited and sporadic demand, but collectively with enormous aggregate volume.