Flying like Superman in a 3-metre disk: Is this eVTOL aircraft the future of urban mobility?

On a frosty January morning in a field south of Seattle in the US, a 3-metre black disc takes to the air.

It’s the first flight of a full-scale Zeva Aero Zero, a flying craft that its inventors believe will soon change the personal transportation landscape.

Powered by electric motors, not unlike those used in drones, it was airborne for just a short time before making a pitch-perfect landing.

“It’s an octocopter; it has eight motors, four on the top plane, four on the bottom plane. Each one is optimised for its position,” said Stephen Tibbitts, CEO of Zeva Aero.

A finalist for the Boeing-sponsored GoFly prize that offers a $1 million prize (€909,000), Zeva Aero's Zero is an electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing, or eVTOL, craft.

Its inventor’s vision foresees a flight craft capable of taking off vertically from a "skyport" on the side of a building, or from the ground, before transitioning to a forward flight mode.

"The pilot gets in standing up, and his head goes up there and he’s got a very nice view out the front. It takes off vertically and then flies forward at 160 miles per hour, basically in Superman mode," Tibbitts continued.

Designed to accommodate a single person in its prototype model, the pilot stands in the cockpit ahead of takeoff, looking through a plexiglass window.

Having shown the aircraft can take off, the next phase of testing will see the Zeva Zero attempt to transition to forward flight on a full test flight range.

Tibbitts says that the timing for such an aircraft is right.

"All of these technologies, the lightweight materials, the battery capacity, the efficient motors, are all coming together at the same time. The control systems, the semiconductors required to make all the parts, it’s all just