Hyundai Motor Group’s Supernal LLC plans to have its flying taxis in commercial service in 2028, but the project’s technology chief says don’t expect to see the space-age vehicles buzzing around the Los Angeles Summer Olympics that year.
“There won’t be a whole lot of flying of anything around the Olympics for security reasons,” Supernal Chief Technology Officer David McBride told the Business Journal. “It’s one thing to introduce a new soda pop or beer at the Olympics but not something flying.”
Supernal looks poised to emerge as the topflight contender to take the lead in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with the backing of deep-pocketed South Korean giant Hyundai, which runs its American automotive unit in Fountain Valley.
While Santa Ana-based Overair has a goal of a flying taxi service in Dallas by 2026, when the city hosts the FIFA World Cup, it is reportedly running low on capital and several of its employees have quit, according to a Forbes magazine article earlier this year. Overair executives haven’t responded to Business Journal requests for comment on the Forbes article.
By contrast, Supernal in March was able to convince McBride, who has a storied history of more than 40 years in aviation, to join. He was director of NASA’s premiere Armstrong Flight Research Center, which is named after the first man to set foot on the moon; McBride led development of a Boeing 747 aircraft that carried a telescope into the stratosphere, allowing astronomers to observe the infrared university above 99% of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere.
He also oversaw development of NASA’s all-electric aircraft, and he safely conducted global operations for NASA’s Earth Science missions.
“David has spent his career making the ‘impossible’ ‘possible’ in aviation, leading numerous successful missions at NASA, and we are eager for him to help lead Supernal in bringing our scalable eVTOL vehicle to market in 2028,” Jaiwon Shin, president of Hyundai Motor Group and chief executive at Supernal, said in March when announcing McBride’s appointment.
Another Supernal edge is at the Federal Aviation Administration, which last October tapped as its top administrator Michael Whitaker, the company’s former chief operating officer.
The company is preparing to promote its air taxi next week at the famous Farnborough International Airshow in the U.K., using a full-scale mockup.
From DC to OC
Supernal was established in 2020 as Hyundai Motor Group’s Urban Air Mobility Division with headquarters in Washington D.C.
The company last year moved into a 105,000-square-foot office at Irvine Co.’s Discovery Park and nearby has another 80,000-square-foot satellite test and evaluation site. McBride, who lives in Newport Beach, oversees Supernal’s futuristic-looking engineering headquarters.
The company is developing the landing vehicle, called the S-A2, which will hold four passengers and a pilot, “to meet typical city operation needs of 25-to 40-mile trips, initially.”
“I’m sure by the time we hit the market, we’ll come up with something catchy” for a name, McBride quipped.
The plan is for the S-A2 to cruise at 120 miles per hour and reach an altitude of 1,500 feet, while McBride said it will have 60 to 100 miles of range. It will have a total of about 1,000 pounds payload and be much quieter than helicopters.
“Supernal says it’s putting a lot of focus on batteries, particularly, the ability to upgrade to lighter cells when the technology improves,” according to a January report in the tech website The Verge.
Public Acceptance
Besides air taxis, companies in the industry are studying a broad range of possible uses to include carrying medical equipment, emergency rescue supplies and limited cargo.
Meeting the 2028 goal is a path filled with challenges, ranging from public acceptance of the new aircraft buzzing overhead to the exacting certification process, which mandates various government approvals before the vehicle can enter commercial service.
“The FAA and other regulatory authorities are developing rules and guidance for eVTOL aircraft as the aircraft and technologies are being developed. While this is a challenge for us, it also presents a unique opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process and provide inputs to the regulators to drive common sense policy in real time,” Supernal CEO Shin has previously said.
The company says that “rather than being first to market, we’re building the right product and right market first.”
“Our marketing plan is to produce and sell to others,” CTO McBride said.
The company has grown to about 350 employees in Irvine as of June, with plans for a few dozen more this year, he said. The overall headcount is approximately 700 across Irvine, Fremont and Washington, D.C.
Recruiting is also taking place locally, including at the University of California, Irvine.
“This is the place to be for recruiting aerospace and engineering talent,” McBride said.
Supernal, they call it
It’s a name you’ll be hearing a lot more of, so it’s best to get the pronunciation down right: Supernal (Su•per•nal) is how the company pronounces its name.
It’s an advanced air mobility company that’s developing an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle, with its engineering headquarters in Irvine.
The authoritative Merriam Webster dictionary says “supernal” meanings include “being or coming from on high” and “located in or belonging to the sky.”
—Kevin Costelloe
Race to Beat the Freeway Traffic
Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY) of Santa Cruz, Boeing-owned Wisk Aero of Mountain View and Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) are just three of the U.S. companies seeking to develop eVTOLs, electric-powered flying taxis and cargo carriers.
“There’s been plenty of turbulence in this emerging industry,” the tech website The Verge reported earlier this year. “A number of startups have gone out of business, most notably, Google founder Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk, which helped kick off the boom in 2017. There have been lawsuits, layoffs, mergers and no shortage of drama, including a handful of fires and at least one (uncrewed) crash.”
Ride-sharing pioneer Uber sold off its flying taxi unit Elevate to Joby more than three years ago. Locally, Santa Ana’s Overair, which has also reportedly run into problems, is also developing an eVTOL.
“There’s room for everybody in this market,” Supernal CTO David McBride told the Business Journal. The market “will certainly support more than one provider.”
Buzzing over endless miles of stuck traffic in a flying taxi is one of many goals.
“Every time I get on the 405 Freeway, I wish I had one of these vehicles to take me whether I’m going from here to LAX or here to Downtown Los Angeles or San Diego,” McBride said. “It’s a perpetual frustration for all of us having to deal with freeway traffic and congestion.”
—Kevin Costelloe