The Electric: The U.S.-French Race to Electrify the Skies Above the Olympics

In 1876, millions of visitors to the World’s Fair in Philadelphia saw the first typewriter, the largest steam engine ever, and arguably the showstopper—the telephone, demonstrated by Alexander Graham Bell. Seventeen years later, visitors to the Chicago World’s Fair witnessed Nikola Tesla’s system of alternating electric current and the “City of Light” it created.

Every four or so years for the last century and a half, nations have gathered in gigantic fairs and athletic spectacles, parading their best technologies in shows of ostensible geopolitical and technological superiority. Today, technological street cred is again on the line: The cities of Paris and Los Angeles—hosts, respectively, of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics—are racing to show off commercial electric air taxis on behalf of their nations. European aircraft developer Volocopter is awaiting certification to ferry paying tourists in a small number of two-person electric helicopters during next summer’s Olympics in the French capital. And U.S. air taxi developers Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation hope to fly 2028 Olympics spectators around Los Angeles in waves of hundreds and perhaps thousands of five-seat electric aircraft.

By sending thousands of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft aloft during the two Olympics, the eVTOL companies hope to generate a groundswell of consumer interest, similar to how Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s personal promotion of his Model 3 sedan in 2017 triggered demand for the car. And the Biden administration, backing up the eVTOL effort, hopes the aircraft will send a message—particularly to China—about Western technological supremacy.