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Short abstract

Emerging aviation innovators encode sci-fi futures in the design and communication of Advanced Air Mobility, which publics decode in their readings of AAM. Encounters with alternative, less speculative, AAM futures prompt diverse reactions from publics, with implications for upstream engagement.

Long abstract

Science fiction plays an active role in the UK’s emerging Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) innovation ecosystem, informing design decisions and how these emerging technologies are communicated in and to publics (Mason-Wilkes, under review). Often referred to as ‘air taxis’ or ‘flying cars’, passenger-carrying AAM concepts are routinely read by publics through these sci-fi framings (Mason-Wilkes and Elsdon-Baker 2025). In an expanding technological sector which has received government and regulatory support to enable its development, the ‘sci-fi’ inflection of these technologies has implications for how publics engage with them upstream of their potential roll-out and broader civic and commercial use.

Public and community engagement around AAM technologies - including logistics and maintenance drones, and passenger carrying eVTOLs or ‘air taxis’ – was undertaken across the UK between October 2025 and March 2026 to understand selected local communities’ perceptions and attitudes towards potential AAM use in their local areas. Focus groups in England explored potential eVTOL use. Participants were introduced to eVTOLs via press images, before discussing their hopes, fear, concerns and expectations. Sci-fi framings arose unprompted during these discussions, with participants positioning AAM in both utopian and dystopian imagined futures. Discussions were followed by a demonstration of one UK AAM innovation ecosystem organisation’s AAM concept. This presentation of an alternative AAM future, distanced from science-fictional imaginings, prompted diverse reactions from participants, with some less enthused by eVTOLs whilst others were reassured by less speculative messaging. The implications for upstream public engagement with emerging technologies rich in pop-cultural referents are discussed.