Upward Mobility for All

The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), a non-profit technical society for the advancement of vertical flight, has announced that it has enjoyed steady growth in the second quarter of 2022. The organization attributes its accession to the waxing acceptance and burgeoning popularity of electric aircraft around the world.

As of July 2022, the Vertical Flight Society comprises 176-member companies and organizations—twenty more than it numbered in July 2021. The increase continues a trend that has seen the VFS grow at a vigorous 13% per annum. Vertical Flight Society membership has doubled since 2017—largely as a function of the resources and support the organization provides the vertical and electric flight communities, to include: technical resources, talent acquisition, educational opportunities, and networking.

Here follows a roster of the corporate members with which the Vertical Flight Society bolstered its ranks in the second-quarter of 2022:

•  EHang Intelligent Equipment (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (Small Business Class)
• Enstrom Helicopter Corporation (Small Business Class)
• Lockheed Martin Government Affairs (Small Business Class)
• MightyFly (Associate Class)
• OSS Air Management Pvt Ltd (Associate Class)
• PSSC Labs (Small Business Class)
• Qarbon Aerospace (Silver Class)
• Technology for Energy Corporation (Associate Class)
• Xagon Solutions Inc (Small Business Class)

The Vertical Flight Society’s heft was further enhanced by the increase of Lilium GmbH’s stake in the coalition from Associate Member to Gold Member—Gold Membership being second only to that of the five major helicopter manufacturers: Airbus, Bell, Boeing, Leonardo and Sikorsky—which sit atop the VFS hierarchy as Platinum Members.

Since embroiling itself in the eVTOL revolution, the Vertical Flight Society has emerged as the leading voice of the eVTOL community in industry, academia, and government. VFS hosted the world’s first eVTOL technical meeting in 2014, founded the world’s first eVTOL eNewsletter in 2016, launched the world’s first dedicated eVTOL website in 2017, compiled the world’s first eVTOL short course in 2018, and hosted North America’s first hydrogen aviation symposium in March 2022. Numerous relationships, partnerships, and deals in the electric flight community were forged or strengthened at or through VFS events and resources.

Established in 1943 as the American Helicopter Society by the visionaries of the early helicopter industry, the Vertical Flight Society espouses the belief that technological cooperation and collaboration are essential to the development and proliferation of new aircraft technologies and types. As the American Helicopter Society championed the advent and rise of the conventional helicopter, so the Vertical Flight Society fosters the advancement of today’s revolutionary rotorcraft. 

FMI: www.vtol.org