Rafael Yoeli

Our founder and board member, Dr. Rafael (Rafi) Yoeli, constructed our first flying vehicle in the living room of a tiny apartment in Tel Aviv. When Dr. Yoeli wanted to take the vehicle out for its first flight, he found it did not fit through the door, so it had to be removed through the window instead.

Dr. Yoeli created this first manned vehicle with ducted fan technology with a vision to develop a VTOL without the severe limitations of exposed rotors, while preserving the performance of a helicopter.

He can’t forget that first flight in 2003 when his dream took off for the first time. “It felt great, but the vehicle was difficult to control because it had no auto stabilization - so I mainly remember the workload and the focus on the testing. The vehicle was meant to prove my first patent (the vane control system), and it already accomplished that on the first takeoff. I was extremely pleased to see that it worked perfectly”.

Although our aircraft have come a long way since that first flight, our vision of making urban air mobility a reality remains.