Rani Plaut wanders through the giant workshop of his startup company, AIR, located behind a shopping mall in the drab Pardes Hanna industrial zone. A team member calls out to him, to come check out the new plane under construction. The craft is the size of a family car, with a large cabin that resembles the inside of a pickup truck. Designed to carry heavy cargo or a driver and passenger, it can take off from anywhere to a distance of 100 miles.
"The reason they call me over isn’t because I'm the CEO," Plaut says, "but because I'm an older person with back pain, and my comments are critical to making the product as comfortable and practical as possible. There are another 100 potential users in our focus group, one of whom is my father, who is 85 years old. I'm for extreme simplicity - if it's not simple, it's not it."
The aircraft developed by AIR is essentially a giant drone that takes off and lands vertically and is powered by eight battery-driven rotors. It falls into a new category in the aviation industry called eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing), which aims to scale up drones to carry cargo and passengers. These are new, futuristic vehicles that are in various planning stages at many companies around the world, but it has yet to be proven that they are suitable for large-scale commercial use - and in the meantime, several of those companies have already gone bankrupt.
But Plaut is confident that next year it will be possible to purchase his plane for about $1 million dollars in the US, and take your child to school, even if you are not a pilot. It will be possible to tow it with your private car to a resort or fold its wings and park it in your home garage. Today, AIR's electric plane already serves military units, (Plaut does not disclose which ones), for carrying cargo and medical equipment, generating millions of dollars for the company meanwhile.
At a booth outside the prestigious Kentucky Derby, Plaut signed 54 wealthy people to a waiting list for purchasing the plane. Each paid a $1,000 down payment and provided a means of payment for the rest. Most are not pilots. Today, there are already 2,800 orders on the list.
In recent months, Plaut has achieved several breakthroughs that allow AIR to stand behind its promise of launching the aircraft as early as 2026. Chief among them is the fact that it bypassed the licensing hurdles that most competitors have fallen into, by finding a fast-track approval path that was not intended for eVTOL at all.
In addition, in July he closed a $23 million funding round led by Israeli fund Entrée Venture Capital, along with Shmuel Harlap and Gil Agmon, who were among Mobileye’s initial investors. With this funding, the company will move to new a 3,000-square-meter hangar in Kfar Yona, double the size of its current facility, where it will develop and produce the first planes. Also planned in the longer term is to set up a factory in the US to manufacture thousands of planes, with the goal of bringing the price down to less than $200,000.
An automotive physicist
The workshop the company currently operates in does not resemble an aircraft hangar at an airport. But it is small and intimate enough for the engineers, technicians, and programmers to have space to work together. In the space that feels like a small garage, team members bustle around assembling drones, electronic boards, and various components. Those who need a bit more privacy work in cubicles on the upper floor.
Plaut shows me various prototypes of the real thing, which is the cargo drone being built in the center of the workshop. Underneath, technicians are busy installing the compact batteries that give it the ability to fly for an hour. Music by rappers Static and Ben El plays in the background, and overlooking it all are giant posters of aviation pioneers: the Wright brothers, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Leonardo da Vinci, who among his many creative activities designed several flying machines.
Plaut did not come from this world at all. He is a physicist who dropped out of his studies to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur, and spent most of his career in the automotive industry. He was one of the founders of the French-American company Bmax that, on the basis of several of the patents he registered, developed a technology for shaping metals and bonding titanium, copper, steel, and aluminum components. Bmax is used by Lamborghini, Porsche, and Audi, as well as by aviation manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, and Bombardier. ("It’s the thing most similar to Magneto from X-Men -- shaping metals using your hands").
His close work with automative and aircraft manufacturers led him to conclude that the two industries were very similar yet estranged, "like two sisters who don't talk," he says. "If you go to an Airbus staffer and try to sell them something developed by Mercedes, they’ll pass on it -- but there's really no reason. Car construction is statistically safer than airplanes -- the failure rate of a Kia Picanto or a Ford Focus is much lower than that of a Cessna or a Piper -- and these two industries can learn from each other."
After selling his stake in Bmax in 2016, Plaut looked for a challenge that would bridge the different industries. He knew that the revolution in electric vehicles and drones would eventually intersect with aeronautical innovation but he did not yet know where. In 2019, while searching for companies to invest in, Entrée Venture Capital introduced him to two other entrepreneurs, Chen Rosen and Netanel Goldberg. Rosen, formerly of Aeronautics and Elbit, is an aerodynamics expert who developed a prototype combining characteristics of drones and long-range aircraft. Goldberg, who served in IDF signals intelligence unit 8200, is responsible for developing the avionics system. All three are over 50. Plaut became CEO only after investing several million shekels of his own money.
Avi Eyal, an AIR board member and co-founder of Entrée, recalls how fund partner Ran Achituv met Plaut back in 2017. "We thought he was an excellent entrepreneur and CEO, just in the wrong field. In 2019, we conducted a thorough due diligence on Polarity Mobility [AIR’s original name - A.G.], and decided not to invest from the main fund. But our scouting arm invested a certain amount. Since Ran and I had conducted a very thorough due diligence, we told them they needed a CEO and recommended Rani -- and the rest is history. Later, we also invested, as soon as the company met the milestones we had set for it."
Two years after the company was founded, it flew a prototype at the Ein Shemer drone landing site. This was at the height of the Covid-19 period, and the craft became an attraction for residents of the northern Sharon region, and drone fans looking for open-air activity. Harlap saw the demonstration, was impressed, and a few days later appeared at the company's offices in Pardes Hanna to become its anchor investor.
Entrée, as mentioned, invested only this year, when it led a $23 million funding round -- not a large sum, as the company already sells several models to the Israel defense establishment, and other armies. At its new site, AIR plans to manually assemble 40-60 units a year, and then look for a location for setting up a factory in the US. If all goes well, in the future it will produce 2,000-5,000 aircraft a year, a rate equivalent to the total number of aircraft produced in the US annually.
Hot air cools investors
Plaut’s promise sounds like science fiction, but it also evokes a sense of déjà vu. Dozens of companies have, over the past five years, promised an electric vehicle capable of flying people comfortably and safely. But eVTOL has advantages that could make it the winner: it can take off and land vertically, so it does not require a runway or special landing pad; it is electric, making it much quieter than a helicopter, yet able to use traffic routes and some of the existing licensing conditions for helicopters; it flies using automatic steering, control, and navigation systems-like a pre-programmed drone-and therefore does not require special piloting skills; and if built intelligently, it will cost no more than a luxury car.
But of the dozens of companies that have collectively raised billions of dollars, not even one has yet brought an aircraft to market in mass production. At least 25 developed prototypes that looked quite impressive from the outside, and some of the most promising have already collapsed. Germany’s Lilium Air Mobility was the poster child of this emerging industry: it raised about $1.2 billion, signed a collaboration with Rolls-Royce to bring an electric air taxi designed like a business jet to the world, and went public on the Nasdaq in 2020. This year, Lilium was forced to file for bankruptcy after it became clear that the idea, which worked well as a prototype, had no chance of becoming real. Another promising company, Volocopter, developed a sort of electric helicopter with 18 rotating blades; it raised $620 million before crashing and being sold for $10 million to a Chinese company. It turned out that without a fixed wing like an airplane, it would struggle to cover long distances.
The series of failures in the field has also scared away investors: According to McKinsey, total investments into eVTOL companies have shrunk from almost $5 billion in 2021 to about $3 billion in 2022 and $1.5 billion in 2023.
The AIR difference
This leaves only a few promising players in the West, such as Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation, which are still years away from regulatory approval. Both are developing large, expensive aircraft that take off and fly using tilt-engine design, an aerodynamic technique that makes flying more complex and challenging for regulators, as well as more expensive. Both also aim to produce flying taxis, which will require professional pilots with thousands of flight hours, severely limiting their initial market potential.
California-based Joby has raised $3.4 billion. Its production capacity does not exceed 20 aircraft per year. It is conducting trials in the United Arab Emirates and recently signed an agreement with the government of Kazakhstan but licensing of its products in the US is not in sight. Archer announced it had been selected as the official airborne taxi service for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. However, its aircraft cost at least $5 million per unit, and the company’s focus is on flying over congested cities, which puts final approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) a long way off. In the meantime, it is trying its luck in Dubai.
China, which has taken over the global drone industry with popular brands such as DJI and Autel Robotics, is also promoting several flying vehicles: Xpeng, for example, offers a vertically-taking-off aircraft designed to look like a luxury car, complete with a gullwing-style door and no wings - priced at $236,000; and there is also EHang, which has passed regulatory approvals from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), but some have raised concerns that CAAC regulations are more lenient than those in the West. However, the assessment is that, unlike the situation in the US consumer drone market, the strict FAA regulations in the eVTOL sector are unlikely to allow Chinese aircraft into US skies anytime soon, as long as tensions between the two countries continue.
Although AIR does not appear in any major market research report as a promising eVTOL company, Plaut is not concerned. "What sets us apart is extreme simplicity in every element of the product." While competitors build new and expensive parts, AIR uses off-the-shelf components: the engines are manufactured by a German car engine company with 50 years experience, the batteries are slightly modified car batteries, and the chassis comes from a sports car factory. AIR’s workforce is also modest, at no more than 60 employees.
The challenge in development is complex. To lift a drone off the ground and fly it forward over long distances, two different forces are required: the force to rise vertically and stay aloft, derived from helicopter technology, and the force to fly forward over distance, generated by the lift and thrust characteristic of winged aircraft. eVTOL aircraft designers must balance these two forces. As mentioned, Joby and Archer solved this (as did Boeing with the V-22) using tilt-engine design, a method that requires several subsystems and complicates the certification process.
AIR, on the other hand, solved this in a simpler way, without moving parts. Rosen, with his background from Aeronautics and Elbit, came up with a simple concept that combines a drone and an airplane. Take a homemade drone and fly it into the sky: it will take off vertically, but when it turns to fly further, it will tilt at a slight angle in the direction of flight. But what would happen if you attached a wing to its top that tilted the drone at an even sharper angle in the direction of flight, at 15 degrees with the nose down, while the wing remained perfectly parallel to the ground? Using a flight control system borrowed from autonomous drones, and employing algorithms and aerodynamic patents to improve energy efficiency, a balance is created between the forward inclination of the aircraft, wing angle, and the eVTOL’s flight system. Thus, an aircraft can be produced relatively inexpensively, capable of reaching an effective distance of up to 100 miles while using one-sixth of the energy required by competitors.
A breakthrough to FAA approval
In August, AIR received the FAA seal of approval, becoming the first company in history to have approval for launching a commercial eVTOL for private use in the US, starting next summer. How did it happen? Plaut and his people heard that the FAA was interested in broadening approvals for helicopters and light electric aircraft under a 30-year-old law aimed at enabling greater use of the skies for sports and recreation. Just before the committee ended its term, Plaut managed to bring on two employees - an Israeli engineer living in the US and a former executive at aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream - as observers to the proceedings.
Because this is a small aircraft with few moving parts, and because the company already flies similar models that carry cargo autonomously for federal agencies, AIR was able to become the first company to receive FAA approval for launching a passenger plane within a year, provided it accumulates enough flight hours. This certification is one that AIR’s competitors can only dream about.
As early August next year, AIR eVTOLs will be able to hover in the same airspace as helicopters or Cessna aircraft, at altitudes ranging from 100 meters to 400 meters. Theoretically, it will be possible to go even higher - and without advance notification -- provided the user turns on the appropriate radio frequency and requests permission from the control center.
This March, AIR will begin manned pilot flights in the US. In the meantime, one of the company's prototypes crashed during an unmanned flight in Florida - which is why test flights are conducted. "It is important to understand that aviation is one of the safest fields, although sometimes people feel the opposite and think that flying is more dangerous. The reality is completely different: countless accidents and injuries occur on the roads every year around the world. In the sky, on the other hand, the statistics show a much lower number of casualties."
It’s safer in the skies
Plaut is trying to right a historical wrong, he says, in which the worlds of aviation and the automobile -- both born at the beginning of the last century -- have become increasingly distant from each other. "Civil aviation began when the pilots returned from World War II. They were the first customers for Piper and Cessna planes. 20 years later, less experienced civilian pilots entered, and planes began to fall out of the sky." The strict regulation and the level of reliability demanded by the FAA, Plaut explains, meant that, "the cost of developing a new Cessna became as high as that of a new Airbus passenger plane; it suffocated the industry."
What changed the scene over the last decade were drones and electric vehicles: high-energy-density batteries were proven to be capable of propelling vehicles for long distances, and flight control became an off-the-shelf product. "Take a DJI drone and try to crash it. You'll have a very hard time. It stops on its own, doesn't let itself flip over, and stabilizes at a moment. And when an aircraft can fly itself to its destination, can run on quiet electricity, with no need for a runway or landing strip, and can be sold at the price of a luxury car… eVTOL vehicles have the potential to solve the aviation sector bottleneck."
How close are we to a time when aviation routes will be jammed with flying cars?
"We’re still very far away. For that vision to come true, at least a million flying vehicles must be sold worldwide every year. By comparison, the annual sales rate of cars ranges from 80 to 90 million, about 20 million in the US. The number of light aircraft sold per year in the US doesn’t exceed 2,000. If you add ultralight aircraft, you get 5,000 per year. We expect that in five years we’ll sell 5,000, which for us is a lot, but in America is little. There are almost 300,000 light aircraft in the US today. Even if I were the biggest and most successful player, it’s a small increase."
Unlike in the movies, Plaut does not foresee air routes being supervised by traffic lights or airborne signage. According to him, the reality is simpler: the FAA and NASA have already defined routes for light aircraft or helicopters to fly at altitudes of hundreds of meters. The vehicles of the future are also planned for automatic flights on pre-defined routes, tens or hundreds of meters apart, with fully automatic flight control. This, in advance, reduces the chance of an accident. "And even if an accident or malfunction occurs, these planes have redundancy: they’re able to fly even if one engine goes out or one blade breaks. And if not, they open a parachute."
He adds, "We're not used to being in the air but we risk sitting inside a tin box traveling at 130 kilometers an hour on Highway 6. Where is more dangerous? If you close your eyes while on a highway and take your hands off the wheel, you'll crash in seconds. But what if it happens in the air? The uncrowded space and the high altitude allow you to regain control of the plane.
"A regular road will always be more dangerous for cars than an air route. Even if you add a million aircraft or even 10 million, the density of aircraft in the air will be much less."
City outskirts and countrysides only
However, Plaut does not believe in air transportation over crowded cities, and in his opinion, private aviation will continue to exist only in rural areas or on the outskirts of cities: "Park your plane at the airport, and take an Uber into the city from there."
Your competitors believe that taxis will be the first flying cars, while you are primarily targeting private drivers.
"I believe there will be flying taxis, but it will take time. To become a private pilot of an AIR craft, you’ll need to complete a 15-30 hour course. To fly passengers, professionally, you’ll need about 250 hours, and as much as an additional 1,500 hours, so the barrier to entry is a lot higher."
Will the flying car replace today’s automobiles?
"I think that, for a long time, we’ve lived in a world where they’ve stopped replacing old products with new ones. Tesla didn't replace gasoline-powered vehicles. Those kinds of changes happen over decades. What we're doing is transforming aviation from a small niche into an industry that will be accessible to everyone. We think airplanes should be easy. You might have to get a license to fly one, but in the future, it will be as easy as getting a motorcycle license."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 25, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.