Resembling a futuristic circus tent from the outside, a new building in the U.K. is said to be the first of its kind on Earth: an airport for flying taxis.
Air-One, made by startup Urban-Air Port in connection with Coventry City Council, is a fully functioning 鈥渧ertiport.鈥 A sort of cross between a cab stand and a small airport, a vertiport has a rising platform to launch flying taxis and commercial drones. Although the term existed before, Air-One is the first fully-operational 鈥減op-up鈥 vertiport.
Advocates say it could serve as a blueprint for future vertiports, if this technology truly takes off.
鈥淵ou'll be using one of these to get an air taxi to another city, another town, another location very, very soon,鈥 Ricky Sandhu, founder and executive chair of Urban-Air Port, told 麻豆传媒.
If an airport for flying taxis seems like it鈥檚 ahead of its time, well, technically, it is.
Air taxis are still in the testing phase, and need government approval before taking on passengers.
But the concept may be closer to reality than you think. Hyundai鈥檚 Supernal, a planned family of electric air vehicles, is hoping to take off in 2028.
鈥淚t is the future of a segment of aviation that is coming,鈥 Michael Whitaker, chief commercial officer of Supernal, told 麻豆传媒. 鈥淚t will be here by the end of this decade. And I think in the 2030s it will start to become ubiquitous.鈥
Although Supernal won鈥檛 be officially launching flying vehicles for a while, they are partnering with Urban-Air Port to showcase one of their models at the Air-One event this month. The Supernal S-A1 eVTOL will be on display until May 15 at Air-One.
When you hear the word 鈥渇lying taxis,鈥 you might picture a yellow sedan with its wheels replaced by propellers, or jet engines. But the flying taxis that are likely to hit the market in the next few years are all electric vertical take off (eVTOL) aircraft 鈥 more similar to helicopters than planes, but more eco-friendly.
Hyundai isn鈥檛 the only company eying the urban air mobility field, and some are even closer to launching their vehicles.
A German-made flying taxi, 鈥淰olocopter,鈥 made its first crewed test flight last year in Paris, showcasing the success of its vertical takeoff and allowing manufacturers to test its noise emissions in an urban setting. The Volocopter was also on display in Rome last fall, and the company says its airborne cabs could be in service in 2024.
鈥淲hich, if you imagine right now, we're in '22, it's only two years away,鈥 Sandhu pointed out.
So while Coventry鈥檚 new vertiport has no vehicles set to launch right now, advocates say the time to prepare for tomorrow鈥檚 transportation is today.
鈥淲e are quite literally paving the way by putting the infrastructure in place,鈥 Sandhu said.
Urban-Air Port is looking to build 200 of its vertiports around the world in the next five years. It鈥檚 already attracted nearly US$25 million in investment, including financial backing from one Canadian group 鈥 so the question still up in the air is whether any of these will be built here in Canada.
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