Around 2020, the Boeing air taxi will launch

The head of the American company says a prototype of a seductive small plane will be deployed next year with traffic reform. In parallel with the development, the regulators are already being consulted so that the age of the Jetson family may come soon.

There is a lot of scramble to fill the airspace with small passenger vehicles as soon as possible. Just now the CEO of Boeing, known for his larger flights, has spoken confidently about their own project.

According to Dennis Muilenburg, who interviewed Bloomberg, a prototype of their vehicle invented for air taxiing will be in the sky next year to do test laps. This, according to Boeing, paves the way for the construction of three-dimensional highways, thus easing the load on the terrestrial network, which in some places seems truly unbearable. According to Mullenberg’s vision, you don’t even have to sleep much until the world of the old cartoon series, the Jetson family, is realized. The CEO estimates it will only take about five years for self-driving flying cars and other vehicles to emerge that can move both passengers and cargo quickly in densely populated areas.

One thing is the technological implementation, and another is its practical appearance and spread. They seek to facilitate the latter by working closely with regulators and other actors to develop a secure system that enables such developments at the same time and ensures that they are all deployed in a coordinated, controlled manner.

Boeing acquired Aurora Flight Services, interested in the drone, last year to accelerate development, and teamed up with SparkCognition startups to organize air traffic control. Incidentally, the CEO did not say whether the first machines would start in a self-directed way, or (at least initially) even active human involvement would be required.

The first man in the U.S. company is confident that as soon as this market, which does not yet exist, starts, Boeing will be among the first to march there. However, others will have a word or two to do this, as it is difficult to list how many similar experiments and projects have already been announced.

Kitty Hawk’s self-driving air taxi, branded by Google founder Larry Page, is already being tested in New Zealand. Airbus and Audi are working together on an idea that would turn specially designed cars into air-friendly structures using load-bearing drones.

But we could mention the robot airplane introduced by the Chinese Ehang two years ago, which underwent a massive series of tests until February this year and has already performed successful flights with a human passenger. NASA and Uber are also working feverishly, as is Boeing’s rival, Airbus, where they are also filing a dreamy taxi project.