Investor Q&A
VHS Investor Q&A
Concise, investor-friendly answers to the questions we hear most often about the Virtual Highway System.
What is VHS?+
VHS — the Virtual Highway System — is a prototype-stage access-control, reservation, and visualization layer designed to support how future eVTOL networks could coordinate movement between vertiports and structured sky corridors.
What problem does VHS solve?+
Future eVTOL operations will face a coordination gap between vertiport surfaces and the broader airspace. VHS is designed to give that transition a reservation-based access model — requests, holds, releases, and emergency priority — so multiple operators, schedules, and constraints can be arbitrated consistently rather than ad-hoc.
Why is this needed for future eVTOL networks?+
Aircraft availability alone does not produce predictable operations. As vertiport throughput grows, the transition volume above each site becomes the bottleneck. A shared access and visualization layer is designed to turn that bottleneck into a reviewable, repeatable process.
Does VHS replace FAA or air traffic control?+
No. VHS is not a replacement for air traffic control and is not a regulator. It is designed to support operators, vertiports, and regulators with a coordination layer focused on access and visualization. Final authority remains with the appropriate aviation authorities.
How does VHS make money?+
The intended model centers on licensing the coordination layer to vertiport operators, fleet operators, and ecosystem partners, with potential service fees tied to reservation throughput. Pricing structures will be refined alongside design partners as the prototype matures.
What protects VHS from copycats?+
Defensibility is intended to come from a combination of operational design (the access and reservation model itself), integrations with vertiport and operator workflows, accumulated coordination data, and the trust relationships required to sit between operators and regulators. None of these are trivial to replicate quickly.
What stage is the prototype in?+
Prototype stage. The current build demonstrates the core flow — request, conflict check, reservation, hold, release, and emergency override — together with an operator-facing visualization. It is not certified, not deployed in live operations, and does not control real aircraft.
What does the company need funding for?+
Funding is intended to extend the prototype into a production-grade coordination layer, develop integrations with vertiport and operator systems, deepen the visualization and audit capabilities required for regulator engagement, and support early design partnerships.
Who are the likely customers or partners?+
Vertiport developers and operators, eVTOL fleet operators, cities and municipal aviation authorities, and ecosystem partners building toward future urban air mobility. Regulatory bodies are stakeholders rather than customers.
Why now?+
eVTOL programs are converging on commercial readiness, and vertiport plans are moving from concept to capital. The coordination layer between them is the part still missing. Building it now — at prototype quality, with the right partners — is what makes it credible later.
Access Nodes
Vertiports, Private Pads, and Certified Access Nodes
Practical questions investors — and regular people — ask about who builds vertiports, what counts as one, and how access into a structured VHS corridor is actually controlled.
VHS is not limited to major city vertiports. VHS is designed around certified access nodes. A public rooftop vertiport, airport vertiport, hospital pad, rural emergency site, corporate campus, or private landing area could only connect to the VHS network if it meets defined safety, communication, identity, reservation, and transition-volume requirements. A private pad may allow an aircraft to take off or land under applicable aviation rules, but that does not automatically grant access to a structured VHS corridor. In VHS, the rule is simple: no certified access node, no verified aircraft, no valid reservation, no access to the highway.
Who is building vertiports?+
Vertiport infrastructure is already becoming its own sector. Companies such as Skyports Infrastructure, Urban-Air Port, UrbanV, and VertiPorts by Atlantic are examples of organizations working on vertiport development, advanced air mobility infrastructure, and future takeoff-and-landing networks. The point is clear: eVTOL aircraft will need more than aircraft manufacturers. They will need physical access points, operating procedures, charging or support infrastructure, and a coordination layer.
What determines whether something is a vertiport?+
A vertiport is not just any flat surface where an aircraft can land. A serious vertiport is a planned aviation facility designed for vertical takeoff-and-landing operations. It may require proper approach and departure paths, landing areas, obstacle clearance, lighting or markings, passenger or cargo handling, safety procedures, communications, emergency planning, local approvals, and applicable aviation review. VHS should treat a vertiport as a recognized access point into a structured air mobility network, not merely as a rooftop pad.
Can a parking pad at someone's house become part of VHS?+
Possibly, but not automatically. A private home pad, ranch pad, corporate campus, hospital pad, resort pad, or rural emergency site could only connect to the VHS network if it meets defined safety, communication, identity, reservation, and transition-volume requirements. The important distinction is this: a private pad may be a physical landing location, but it is not automatically a VHS access node.
What is a VHS-certified access node?+
A VHS-certified access node is a vertiport, airport vertiport, hospital pad, emergency site, rural site, corporate/private pad, logistics hub, or temporary disaster-response node that has been approved to connect to the VHS network. It would have a defined transition volume, verified aircraft/operator access, reservation logic, communications standards, emergency priority rules, and corridor entry/exit procedures.
What stops someone from just entering the VHS highway?+
VHS does not physically build a wall in the sky. Instead, it makes access to the structured network permission-based. An aircraft may be able to fly in legal airspace under normal aviation rules, but that does not mean it has permission to enter a reserved VHS corridor, transition volume, or certified access lane. In VHS language: no certified access node, no verified aircraft, no valid reservation, no access to the highway. If an aircraft enters without authorization, it is not "using VHS"; it becomes an unauthorized conflict visible to the network and subject to the applicable operating, regulatory, insurance, and enforcement framework.
Is VHS only for major city vertiports?+
No. VHS should not be limited to downtown rooftops. The system is designed around access nodes, not just city vertiports. That means it can support urban, suburban, rural, emergency, medical, logistics, tourism, corporate, airport, and disaster-response use cases. A city may need VHS for dense passenger traffic. A rural region may need VHS for emergency medical access, remote cargo, disaster response, or long-distance corridor entry. The core logic is the same: structured access into shared aerial routes.
Why does this matter to the business model?+
This expands VHS beyond one type of vertiport. VHS can become a network certification and access-control layer for any approved node that needs to connect safely to a shared aerial corridor. That creates a broader market: public vertiports, airport vertiports, hospitals, logistics hubs, rural emergency sites, corporate campuses, resorts, infrastructure partners, and government or municipal networks.
Glossary
Key VHS Terms
A short reference for the language used across this site and the prototype.
- Vertiport
- A planned aviation facility designed for vertical takeoff-and-landing aircraft.
- Access Node
- Any approved location that could connect to the VHS network, including a vertiport, hospital pad, airport vertiport, rural site, logistics hub, or certified private pad.
- Certified Access Node
- An access node approved to connect to VHS because it meets defined safety, communication, identity, reservation, and transition-volume requirements.
- Transition Volume
- The controlled 3D airspace between a vertiport/access node and an aerial corridor where aircraft enter or exit the network.
- Reservation Window
- The approved time slot assigned to an aircraft for entering or exiting a transition volume.
- Sky Corridor
- A structured aerial route used for organized eVTOL movement between approved access nodes.
- Unauthorized Conflict
- An aircraft or operator attempting to enter a reserved VHS transition volume or corridor without valid permission.
- Emergency Priority
- A VHS status where emergency aircraft receive priority access while lower-priority movement is held or delayed.
Have a question we did not answer?
Reach out directly or review the prototype.