Red tape could wrap up pilotless air taxi
Air New Zealand’s enthusiasm for the world’s first pilotless air taxi is not shared by sceptics in the country’s wider aviation community.
The vehicle, called Cora, is being developed by California-based Kitty Hawk Corporation, and about 400 of its 700 hours flight testing have been done at a South Island location.
Yesterday, the New Zealand operator, Zephyr Airworks, and Air New Zealand announced they had signed an agreement to ‘‘work collaboratively’’ to make autonomous electric air travel a reality for New Zealanders and produce a marketable world-first aircraft.
The airline refused to say whether that meant it was supporting the project financially or through its engineering expertise.
Aviation consultant Irene King said there was a lot of scepticism in aviation circles about extending drone technology to craft carrying passengers because of safety issues around controlling them, and the complexity of developing appropriate regulations.
‘‘You have multiple risks because they are likely to be flying over populous areas, and given that they cannot quite get the technology right for driver-less cars, I would have thought that the bureaucrats are going to be quite anxious about the thought of driverless drones with passengers zooming around the skies.’’
King said it could take up to a decade to get even minor changes to aviation regulations.
Zephyr Airworks chief executive Fred Reid said the company was delighted to be fostering a close relationship with one of the world’s top-rated and successful airlines.
King said they were clearly hoping to gain credibility through the new agreement.
A draft Ministry of Transport policy paper on unmanned aviation sent out to the industry for comment said the objective was to come up with a system that would ‘‘seamlessly integrate’’ manned and unmanned aircraft.’’
It claims a large number of companies are developing and testing small electric passenger aircraft, and they could play an important role in connecting communities that were too small to sustain regular air services.
Aviation New Zealand chief executive John Nicholson said there was acceptance that unmanned aircraft were coming, and could be useful in areas such as crop spraying. But there was also a degree of nervousness about policy being developed by a cross government group with little, if any, input from the aviation industry, and the consultation period had been extended ‘‘because it was considered far too short for something as significant as this’’.
Zephyr Airworks country director Anna Kominik said the project was privately funded and Cora had not yet carried passengers. It was still testing the prototype.
Kominik said it was hiring flight test and maintenance engineers.
A Civil Aviation Authority spokeswoman would not say whether Zephyr had sought permission to carry passengers because the information was commercially sensitive.
She said certification requirements being developed for the company heavily focused on reducing risks for passengers, air users, and people and property on the ground.
‘‘You have multiple risks because they are likely to be flying over populous areas.’’
Aviation consultant Irene King