Omer Bar-Yohay is one of the forerunners of the current wave of innovation we are seeing in aviation.

Omer Bar-Yohay co-founded and was the first CEO of one of the pioneering firms in the electric aviation space, Eviation (a company we have had here on the podcast as well!) and nowadays he continues to be on the crest of the wave as president of AutoFlight, one of the leading eVTOL developers in the world.

AutoFlight is as close as it gets in the eVTOL world to a global company: founded and headquartered in China, where it has its manufacturing facility, its design and development team and some of its major investors are located in Germany and its operational testing grounds in the California.

Although, perhaps it hasn’t got, so far, as much press as other major eVTOL players, AutoFlight has been collecting some notable successes: in February 2023, AutoFlight’s Prosperity set a new record for a nonstop eVTOL flight, 250km on a single battery charge (beating by 2km the previous record-holder, Joby) and just a few days later it announced a massive 205-strong aircraft order from EVFLY, a firm that intends to launch eVTOL operations in Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa before the end of this decade.

But what I also found quite interesting is that Omer defines himself first and foremost as a realist, so I was really keen to learn his views about the eVTOL euphoria we are living through and get a realistic assessment of the market situation and the prospects for eVTOL developers from an experienced industry insider like him.

There are certainly few people out there with as much direct hands-on experience of the new forms of air mobility that are taking shape!

So tune in for a fascinating conversation with Omer Bar-Yohay, president of AutoFlight!