Could what is essentially a giant drone could be your next ride to the airport?
A recent report from CBC outlines that dozens of companies manufacturing eVTOLs — electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft — are taking off, making lucrative deals and preparing for the next generation of transportation. Battery-powered, they are frequently discussed as a means of moving both cargo and people between cities, suburbs, and airports.
And the headlines don’t lie. Just this month (October 2022), multiple stories have emerged about this new type of venture, including:
- Delta Airlines announced an exclusive partnership with California-based Joby Aviation for zero-emission airport-to-city transfers in electric aircraft.
- Boeing announced a fully-autonomous version of an electric air taxi.
- The city of Rome revealed plans to implement an electric air taxi service by 2025, ahead of a year-long Vatican Jubilee celebration.
- Advanced Air Mobility company Wisk signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Council of Mayors South East Queensland.
What makes these air taxis so promising, especially for high-traffic cities and airports? Well, for starters, the electric factor means that they are relatively climate-friendly. Since they are battery operated, they do have a range, though — typically about 250km. They work essentially like a helicopter, there’s no need for any runways, making it easier to find space for a base of operations, in this case called vertiports. There’s even a company called VPorts, based in Montreal, that’s hoping to build a network of 1,500 vertiports over the next two decades. Of course, air traffic control and pilot certification will still be needed, along with a variety of other regulatory requirements.
“We’re more flexible. We can plug and play different containers to do different jobs, whether it’s medical evacuation, cargo or passenger mobility,” explained Airspace Experience Technologies CEO Jon Rimanelli to CBC.
“Because it’s electric, it’s a simple machine. Fewer failure modes, fewer parts. So that’s one of the key benefits to a system like this, it’s inherently more reliable.”
