The new eVTOL goes on sale in 2024

By Contra Costa County District 3 Supervisor Diane Burgis

George Jetson would feel right at home if he visited Byron Airport.

That’s because in recent years, companies like Pivotal have been testing their innovative personal flying electric vehicle prototypes at Byron. (See video) Last week, Pivotal unveiled the Helix, a new eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicle in development since 2011. The Helix will be priced at $190,000 when it goes on sale in 2024.

Testing innovative technologies at Byron was our goal when I worked with the Contra Costa County Airports Division to partner with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies to make our Contra Costa County airports official unmanned aerial system test sites. Byron Airport and Buchanan Field are in perfect locations to test drones because of the open testing areas and their proximity to the various aviation companies headquartered in the Bay Area (Pivotal is based in Palo Alto). Learn more about our Bay Area Test Site, a.k.a. “Drone Town USA” on the Contra Costa County Airports website or by watching the video.

Having groundbreaking testing facilities in Contra Costa County is just the first step. In the medium and long term, we’re working to have the vehicles of the future developed and even manufactured locally. In the meantime, I’m proud to have products tested in District III ready for sale to aviators everywhere.

the attachments to this post:

Pivotal Helix aircraft

eVTOL Opener tested at Byron Airport

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2023 at 5:33 pm and is filed under Airports, Contra Costa County, East County, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.