The Vertical Flight Society (VFS), the world’s leading non-profit organization working to advance vertical flight, reports today that the explosive growth of world’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft — plus significant developments in military and civil rotorcraft — have continued to expand its membership.

As of March 31, 2023, a total of 186 companies are members of VFS, a net growth of 13 companies (7.5%) from a year ago, and nearly 60 companies over the past three years. VFS has nearly 6,500 individual members — a modest growth of 2% over last year, but a net increase of nearly 8% (460 individuals) since before the COVID-19 pandemic and a 20% growth (1,050 individuals) over the past five years. Much of this growth is due to the extensive support efforts and support that VFS provides to the vertical flight industry, including technical resources, talent acquisition, professional development, educational opportunities and networking.

“With the US Army proceeding towards development of its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), civil helicopter advancements promising new capabilities and eVTOL aircraft in the US, Europe and Asia making impressive progress towards certification, vertical flight has never been more exciting,” said VFS Executive Director Mike Hirschberg. “For more than 80 years, VFS has been instrumental in bringing together our members in academia and government agencies around the world to advance vertical flight.”

Ten new organizations joined VFS during the first quarter of 2023, as listed below.

These new corporate members include companies and agencies from around the world that are supporting all aspects of vertical flight. Descriptions of each organization, including links to their websites, are found in the VFS Corporate Member Directory. Information on the benefits and rates for corporate membership are posted on the VFS Corporate Membership page.

VFS has been the world’s largest technical community of engineers, technologists and specialists developing vertical flight aircraft for more than 80 years. Resources include the world’s largest online research library and hundreds of hours of video recorded lectures and webmeetings, plus in-person and virtual short courses and technical meetings. A growing number of professionals are entering the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) community and the Society provides them with robust resources to increase their knowledge and exchange ideas.

For instance, VFS holds the largest and longest running vertical flight technical conference in the world. This year’s 79^th Annual Forum & Technology Display is on May 16-18, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. More than 250 technical paper presentations, 50 VIP presentations from leaders in government and industry, and 60+ technology exhibitors make the Annual Forum the ultimate VTOL technology event. It is the only conference where executives from the leading helicopter manufacturers, eVTOL developers and technology suppliers meet with suppliers, military leaders and the vertical flight technical base, and learn from the latest technical advances from industry, academia and government researchers. Details are available at www.vtol.org/forum.

VFS has been at the forefront of what it calls the “Electric VTOL Revolution” since 2014 when it held the world’s first meeting of the nascent eVTOL community. The annual Electric VTOL Symposium is the largest and longest running eVTOL conference in the world, and now attracts more than 500 attendees.

VFS began tracking eVTOL designs being published in 2016. As of today, the Society has cataloged 800 different electric VTOL concepts from more than 350 companies and innovators on its authoritative World eVTOL Aircraft Directory at www.evtol.news. The site also hosts some 800 eVTOL news stories, including more than 325 in-depth articles from the Society’s Vertiflite magazine, the leading periodical on eVTOL and rotorcraft developments.

VFS was founded as the American Helicopter Society in 1943 by the visionaries of the early helicopter industry, who believed that technological cooperation and collaboration were essential to support this new type of aircraft. Today, history is repeating itself, with VFS playing a similar role helping to advance today’s revolutionary vertical flight aircraft.

VFS is @VTOLsociety on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube, and has @ElectricVTOL channels on Facebook, Mastodon and Twitter.

This press release was prepared and distributed by VFS