A revolution in urban air transport on the horizon ?

  • Reading Time:3Minutes

The air taxi is waiting for passengers on the ground, and if it is finally given permission to take off, it could redefine urban passenger transport in a way that we will no longer recognise. The technology deserves attention: start-ups for ever more efficient vehicles are proliferating, and a new NASA programme has already demonstrated their viability.

Industry Today’s summary of this issue reminds us that the conquest of UAMs is foreshadowed by extraordinary economic events, from the meteoric success of SPAC to the acquisition of factories such as Elevate, which was an air taxi division of Uber but is now being taken over by its new owner, Joby Aviation. Companies have started thinking about public transport – and not just hobby vehicles – because the latter company’s eVTOL is already being tested by NASA. Joby has made history by becoming the first air taxi to be seriously pursued by the agency under the National Advanced Air Transport (AAM) Programme. The campaign to validate the new devices for domestic transport will really heat up next year, when, after efficiency and acoustic tests, they will be put through more extensive trials involving even more prototypes.

It seems quite likely that by the end of the decade there will be manufacturers with drone-like vehicles for urban passenger and freight transport on the market. Of course, they will all be electrically powered, with a range of about 160 kilometres and a top speed of up to 320 km/h.

The convincing-looking Joby will be an air taxi with six or more piston engines. The eVTOL will be designed for quiet, emission-free travel, carrying 1-2 passengers or the equivalent weight of goods. Of course, they are not the only ones competing in this field: the VoloCity with 17 pusher engines (which its manufacturer plans to launch in Paris and Singapore within three years), the eHang, a self-driving air taxi, and the Airflow winged aircraft (eCTOL) and the Electra, designed for short take-off (eSTOL), look promising.

It is worth noting that the air taxis of the (near) future are unlikely to come to our doorstep, as they cannot be flown from rooftop to rooftop or car park to car park. To ensure their stable and safe operation, they will need to be equipped with so-called ‘vertiports’. These will initially be deployed in suburban areas and will serve air taxis to and from nearby airports. Their deployment will be simpler than their authorisation, as the authorities will have to create new rules for them.

It won’t be easy to get self-driving technology accepted, but until we get to autonomous flight, there is a golden mean, the unmanned aircraft – remotely piloted by trained people, certainly on fixed air corridors.

The USA is the closest to introducing air taxis, where the authorities are already preparing to authorise them (see NASA’s AAM programme, which is helping to develop protocols). Experts expect all the administrative issues to be resolved by 2030 or so, as well as the integration of the vehicles into existing air traffic control systems. Once this happens, UAM will be a fast-growing industry, projected to be worth one trillion dollars by 2040 and nine trillion dollars by 2050.

Source: industrytoday.com

Recent article

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

The flying ambulance arrives at lightning speed

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

The electric car revolution could continue in the air

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

Unmanned aerial taxis flew in a unique formation

Electric airplane News & Articles

NASA’s Innovations: Soaring into an Electrified Flight Future

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

Could eVTOLs and Air Taxis Replace Public Transport ?

Additional aircraft News & Articles

The Morphobot: An Innovation in Multimodal Robotics

News & Articles Points of interest

The Dawn of AI Air Travel: Airbus and its Vision for Autonomy

Air taxi News & Articles

Volocopter’s High-Flying Ambitions for the Olympics

News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel

The Horizon of Aviation: Airbus’ Vision for 2035 and Beyond

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

A Shift in Aviation Licensing and Training

Drones News & Articles

Russia’s Path to Drone Supremacy

Air taxi News & Articles

Israel’s Pioneering Venture into Drone Transport

Air taxi News & Articles

More efficient air taxis in the future

Air taxi News & Articles

Testing of perhaps the most promising air taxi begins

Additional aircraft News & Articles

Navigating the Future: Autonomous Helicopters Soar High

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

Embracing the Future: Seoul’s Leap into Urban Air Mobility
More articles you may be interested in...

Air taxi News & Articles

The Coming Electric Air Taxi Revolution: Competing with Train Tickets ?

The Dutch company, Electron Aviation, is making a bold promise that is set to disrupt.......... READ MORE

News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel

Unveiling the Whisper of Innovation: CycloTech’s Exploration into CycloRotor Noise Levels

In the fast-paced realm of aeronautical engineering, the introduction of CycloRotors has heralded a paradigm.......... READ MORE

Points of interest

Sailing the Skies in Style: Airbus’s Novel Vision for Air Travel

Navigating the dawn of a fresh chapter in aviation, Airbus recently shared its audacious plans.......... READ MORE

Drones News & Articles

Boosting Agriculture: A Drone Revolution Awaits in Budapest

The stage is set in Hungary, as it stands on the brink of an exciting.......... READ MORE

News & Articles Propulsion-Fuel

Embracing the Future with Rolls-Royce’s Revolutionary UltraFan Engine

Just when you thought the apex of innovation had been reached, Rolls-Royce challenges the notion.......... READ MORE

Air taxi News & Articles

Testing of perhaps the most promising air taxi begins

For some of us, the very idea of an air taxi evokes scenes straight out.......... READ MORE

Additional aircraft News & Articles

Navigating the Future: Autonomous Helicopters Soar High

Unmanned helicopters are no longer a concept in some futuristic Sci-Fi novel. They're here, revolutionizing.......... READ MORE

EVTOL & VTOL News & Articles

Embracing the Future: Seoul’s Leap into Urban Air Mobility

In an audacious move to revolutionize its transport system, Seoul - the bustling South Korean.......... READ MORE