there are a lot of companies doing R&D on VTOL aircraft. I understand their necessity for the military, but for civilian aviation, there are a very few application that requires it( medevac, search and rescue, offshore platform).
do you think vtol has a future for passengers transportation, or is it another silicon valley/uber/ youtube gimmick?
my question relates more as to the very nature of vtol, rather than the type of tech used(helicopter, multicopter, magical anti gravity device )
This is potentially opinion-based, but I can tell you what I have seen working in the aerospace industry alongside (but not inside) some of these companies testing VTOL aircraft for commercial usage.
One major benefit of a VTOL aircraft is that it can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter, in nearly any type of terrain. This eliminates the need for a runway and instead you need a helipad, or in an ideal world, a few parking spaces.
So why not use helicopters? Well, helicopters are very inefficient compared to fixed-wing aircraft when flying any considerable distance.
Take for example a proposed flight route of Boston to New York City. A VTOL aircraft could pick you up from a parking garage or parking lot in Boston, reorient itself in a "horizontal" mode, fly the ~200 miles or so to New York City, and land on top of a building. No need for airports, no need for inconvenience.
Different companies give different quotes, but you'll see people quoting up to 90% greater efficiency on these sort of routes, making it affordable to perhaps not your average middle-class, but perhaps your slightly above average middle-class.
Given the increase in efficiency, it's certainly likely that this technology will be used commercially until something better comes along.