Flying trains could be coming your way
It sounds like something Q, the tech guy in James Bond movies, would create: A plane that land son a runway, shrugs its wings off, turns into a train and rolls onto rails to drop you off at your local station.
That’ s what a French entrepreneur, who’s made millions by connecting engineers with industrial groups, is pitching to Boeing and others .“Link& Fly” is Akka Technologies’ s new flag ship aircraft design, with wings that come off to has ten turnover at airport sand make boarding easier and closer to passengers’ homes.
“After cars go electric and autonomous, the next big disruption will be in airplanes ,” Akka’s Chief Executive Officer Maurice Ric ci said in an interview in Paris. Boeing is among prime customer targets for Akka ,a sit seeks to limit its dependence on the likes of Air bus SE and Renaultin Europe.
With Akka’ s futuristic concept, passengers would-board-a-train-like tu-beata neighbourhood station and have their retinas scanned for security during the ride to the airport. Wings would then be attached to the pod for take-off. The company has showcased the idea in a 3 D mock-up video, gathering interest from potential customers in Asia, Ric ci said, without naming any company.
Plane makers have begun to react as technology companies come up with disruptive ideas—from U ber’ s investments in flying tax is to Kitty Hawk, a startup backed by Google’ s co founder Larry Page that’ s creating a battery powered single-Air bus took the offensive with anew division to over see transport of the future, while Boeing has made a noisy foray into jet packs.
While Akka’ s not banking on convincing a plane maker to necessarily build the entire “Link &Fly” concept, it’ s betting on the design to bean attention grabber and a showcase, parts of which are likely to end up in customers’ commercial air crafts down the line.