There is a lot happening in the world of flying taxis, but for all the renders, working prototypes and design sketches, how exactly they will land, collect passengers and take off again is something of an unknown. Startup Volocopter will now seek to explore the possibilities around this through a newly announced partnership with Frankfurt Airport.
Some are making some exciting progress in the development of flying taxis, which would carry out short flights over busy cities to ease urban congestion. Volocopter is certainly an example of that, having carried out a string of successful test flights, including unmanned jaunt over Dubai.
We have also seen a number of concepts around the infrastructure to support this new generation of aerial vehicles, with some particularly thought-provoking examples arising from Uber's ambitions in the area. Volocopter too has shared its vision for stations where its two-seater electric aircraft would take off and land, allowing passengers to hop on and off and for its electric batteries to be swapped in and out.
Through a new partnership with Fraport AG, operator of Frankfurt Airport in Germany, it will now explore this with respect to airports. The two companies have begun developing concepts for so-called Volocopter Ports, which would be integrated into existing airport infrastructure and provide connections to local forms of urban transport.
"Autonomous flying will fundamentally change aviation in the years to come," says Anke Giesen, Fraport AG COO. "We want to be the first airport in Europe to harness the potential of electric air taxis in partnership with pioneer Volocopter – for the benefit of our passengers and the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region. This partnership underscores Fraport AG's role as a key driver of innovation in diverse fields."
Source: Volocopter
There are others in no specific order such as ehang, lift, the Koncepto Millenya multirotor which looks to be extremely stable, airbusse's caryall multirotor looking by far like the sleekest, prettist of them all i've ever seen.
Then bell and boeing working on their's. Volo is good, slightly larger and not as compact as i would want it to be, but they will definitely have part of the share of different types of vehicles that will be in the sky i believe in the next 4 to 6 years, i'm sure different versions will also be created in future.
So the only one question left, where do we place the Hero Flyer!
Helicopters have auto rotation which not always work as planned, once the motor die and you make just one single mistake you'll be a pile of debris once you hit the ground.
Furthermore, helicopters are a mechanical nightmare, expensive parts to replace and service, a Multicopter is the exact opposite !
The big rotor of a helicopter takes time to respond to changes, multicopters have smaller motors and can respond more nimbly to attitude changes.
Helicopters will continue to be used for longer distance travel but multicopters will start a new revolution uniquely suited to them and one of them is being short air taxi hops, and short distance getaway destinations, you could do long distance travel with multicopters, when the range extends in the future which it definitely will ! An awesome Era to be living in !