Hyundai Motor Group’s eVTOL air taxi unit, Supernal, has halted work on its eVTOL program, following the exits of CEO Jaiwon Shin and CTO David McBride, an disruption that leaves a still-early flight-test effort in a play and raises fresh questions about the company’s 2028 commercial plans. As Hyundai gets ready to name new leadership with more operational experience, interim-COO David Rottblatt, who was previously senior director of business development, is now in charge of day-to-day decision-making.
Leadership shake-up puts the brakes on a kid flight-test program
The timing is striking. Supernal had only recently finished the first flights of a technology demonstrator and was gearing up to make its first untethered flight when the program pause was announced, according to people familiar with the program and local media reports. The flight-test stand down and McBride departure were first reported by the Orange County Register, while Shin’s exit was confirmed by Hyundai in a company statement.
Shin, formerly of NASA and head of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, was the public spokeswoman for Supernal’s roadmap, which included a production-intent aircraft design and ground ecosystem concepts that are being previewed.
McBride, a former head of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, had been championing a build-test-learn rhythm, press had been told that early flights would prove the team’s ability to build and test its aircraft architecture before a planned service entry by the end of the decade.
To pause at this point in a demonstrator program is unusual, if not unheard-of, with aviation start-ups, when test points, supplier maturity, and resource constraints can force a reset.
It will probably spur a rebaseline of Supernal’s internal milestones — including most notably the road to type certification, a safety-critical FA A process that U.S. rivals have already spent years advancing.
What this says about Hyundai’s ambitious air mobility push
Supernal is at the heart of Hyundai’s AAM wager: an electric, short-hop cousin to urban ground transport. The Korean automaker has made the case that its size in batteries, manufacturing and supply chain could de-risk the industrialization of eVTOL. A leadership reset now complicates that thesis, especially after Hyundai’s autonomous-vehicle venture with another partner, Motional, recently underwent a major reshuffling in restructuring and financing following the partner’s change in support.
From an executional angle, the pressing questions are logistical. Are there deep design or integration problems the demonstrator has exposed that necessitate a stay, or is this mostly about governance and resources, connected to leadership changes? How the company responds could also impact supplier orders, and employee morale — two valuable corporate assets that startups can ill-afford to lose in a capital-intensive industry.
A pressured market: funding, regulation and rivals
Supernal’s delay comes in the midst of a choppy time for the market. Indeed, according to McKinsey’s Aerial Mobility practice, revealed investment in eVTOL and other AAM initiatives totaling in the low double digits of billions of dollars since 2020 is on file, but only a few have advanced to reach a critical certification and scaling-up stage. The crawl-walk-run Innovate28 is the FAA’s developmental symptom to initial ops, but what will be required are again operating standards and operating rules that are proving to be a moving target vis-à-vis powered-lift aircraft.
Rivals are pressing ahead. Joby Aviation has a Part 135 air carrier certificate under review, is working its way through FAA type certification with multiple means-of-compliance accepted and has publicized Department of Defense flight activity and airline agreements. Archer Aviation has also described progressing through conformity testing and signing infrastructure tie-ups with major airports. In China, is de EHang een door lokale autoriteiten goedgekeurde pilotless elektrische quadrotor, die al beperkt van start is gegaan – een illustratie dat wet- en regelgeving van regio tot regio enorm kan verschillen.
Forecasts remain expansive but uneven. Previous analyst estimates from companies such as Morgan Stanley suggested that an industry of that size might emerge by the 2040s, but recent industry commentary has focused more on the need for cost-effective aircraft, pragmatic route economics and the ability to integrate the air vehicles with those on the ground. Against that backdrop, Supernal’s reset serves as an illustration of the aerospace sector’s central tension: big promises versus the painstaking, incremental work required under aviation certification and production.
Key signals to watch
First, leadership clarity. Hyundai has said it will install executives with a lot of operating chops; who those are, and whether they come from the world of commercial aerospace, rotorcraft or automobile manufacturing, will tell us what the process will look like for certification and scaling.
Second, the restart criteria in the test program. How quickly Supernal resumes un-tethered, envelope expansion flights will tell us if that break, if not just organizational in nature, was risk based at all. The progress of existing supplier commitments on batteries, flight-control systems, and composite structures will be informative as well.
Third, timeline rebaselining. Any change to the service-entry target previously announced will create a wave through airport partners, potential operators and city planning. With the FAA’s pace and the difficult nature of powered-lift certification, a conservative timetable would not shock those familiar with program.
And the potential is huge for Hyundai, if it can bring aviation rigor to automotive-scale production. For Supernal, the immediate to-do list is less ambitious, but far more urgent: Secure leadership, reset an evidence-based flight program, and restore its credibility in a maturing — but still brutal — eVTOL market.
