Where the Olympics go, eVTOLs follow. That's one possible conclusion following last week's news that Volocopter officially opened the world's first Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vertiport at Paris' Aerodrome of Saint-Cyr l'École, while also flying its two-person VoloCity aircraft. Archer also released plans yesterday for a network of vertiports in and around Los Angeles, to accommodation its five-person Midnight eVTOL. The company said the network could be operational before the arrival of the 2028 Summer Games, perhaps even having the first location ready for the 2026 World Cup.

The Olympics may not actually be causative, but the needs of moving a lot of people and alleviating traffic during mass sporting events could spur the seismic jump necessary for creating an electric air taxi revolution. "California is showing the world what's possible when you embrace innovation, entrepreneurship and clean energy to help solve your biggest challenges," Gov. Gavin Newsom said following the Archer announcement. California will also host games for the 2026 World Cup.

For Germany-based Volocopter, the completion of the vertiport and hover flight on Thursday at the Saint-Cyr-l'École airport kicks off an "operational validation phase." The first vertiport will serve as a model and data-collection experiment that will help establish a commercial eVTOL network in France. Volocopter hopes it will also be a template for other cities. The flight included "maneuvers to and from the vertiport, ground handling, communication with air traffic control, and battery charging and management at vertiports," said a company statement.

The developments are the result of a partnership between Volocopter and Group ADP that started in 2020. "Everyone at Volocopter is incredibly proud of how far the company has come and what it means to fly today at Saint-Cyr l'École," said CEO Dirk Hoke, during the event. "City launches take time to establish a foothold on the ground."

Volocopter had originally hoped to begin official flights before the 2024 Games began, but had been waylaid for months by the Paris City Council and a climate activist group called Extinction Rebellion, both citing noise and air-traffic concerns. Extinction Rebellion wants to shut down all eVTOL activities in Europe.