For years people have dreamed of flying around Jetsons-style in small vertical take off and landing aircraft. Then a few years ago Uber started talking about spinning off Uber Air - an aerial ride share concept that would provide seamless multi modal transport options.

Melbourne was chosen as one of just three launch cities for this service, along with Los Angeles and Dallas. For a short while it seemed like Australia had been anointed to be one of the epicentres of this fantastical new industry. 

Visions of vertiport towers in the sky capable of a thousand aircraft movements per hour made people nervous. Did we really want to be host to this?

Before the community outrage could even start to build Uber Air folded and Australia again became a backwater in this nascent industry.

So where are we now? 

Over $10 billion has been invested in the frontrunner aircraft backed by the likes of Boeing, Bell, Embraer, Airbus and a range of tech start ups. The aircraft are already in the sky in USA and Europe, although not yet able to operate commercially.

Are we headed for a new era in clean, green, quiet aviation or will electric air taxis go the way of the Segway - a viable mobility product that has never been taken up other than for niche tourism uses?

In this presentation we will cut through the spin, smoke and mirrors put out there in the race to raise the billions of dollar required to develop this new industry.

We will explore the likely timelines, the use cases that might work, the industry players, the political support, the road blocks and what Australia needs to do to become a launch market for electric air taxis - if this is what we want.