Ready for air taxis? Aerospace engineers and entrepreneurs aim to change how we see the sky
The next time you are outside, look up.
You might see houses, buildings, a few trees. Higher you may see some clouds, a commercial airplane, a military airplane. Maybe there’s a helicopter.
In other words, not much. That’s changing.
Aerospace engineers and entrepreneurs across the world are in a race to fundamentally change how we see the sky.
They are working on new air vehicles — in an industry called advanced air mobility — that will be used to drop packages on your doorstep, transport people and cargo over shorter distances and could even give people the ability to call airtaxis.
“It’s not an if, it’s a when,” said Davis Hackenberg, the Advanced Air Mobility project manager for NASA. “Electric aviation is going to happen.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill sponsored by Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids that would create a working group to study what the federal government needs to do in regards to the fledgling industry. It now heads to the U.S. Senate, where it’s being shepherded by Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran.
The bill is an attempt to get the government prepared for what will likely change the future of transportation. It will mean everything from new safety regulations, to infrastructure in the form of “vertiports,” to getting the public onboard with the concept of drone-like planes flying around their neighborhoods. It’s also an attempt to keep Kansas — with its well-established aeronautics industry — at the forefront of the next generation in flight.
“I think we’re well positioned to not only be able to be the air capital of the world for all the general aviation and commercial aircraft that we have been historically but we can be the air capital of the world for advanced air mobility too,” said Pierre Harter, the Director of Research and Development for National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University
For nearly a century, air travel has largely been limited to airplanes and helicopters. For the average passenger during much of that period, it’s meant going to an airport, sitting for an hour and getting herded into a seat that seems to get smaller every year.
But technology may soon change the way we think about flying.
Batteries keep getting smaller. Materials to build the aircraft are lighter than ever. Software is getting more sophisticated. A modern cockpit from 20 years ago can’t do half as much as the phone in your pocket, according to Harter.
It has enabled an even greater focus on electric technology in aviation over the past 15 years. That’s allowed for new aircraft designs. It’s changed the way they fly. It’s changed how aircraft can be used. It has made them quieter, so they can get closer to people’s homes.
“It’s a big, wide-open, wild west,” Harter said. “There’s a lot of people out there, a lot of dreamers trying to crack this nut. You have a lot of folks who are not traditionally aerospace who think they can crack this nut as well.”
Already, companies like Joby Aviation, which has investments from Uber, are testing passenger vehicles in the hopes of getting them certified with the FAA. Amazon and Wing, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, already have permission to use drones to deliver packages in some places. Hyundai has an advanced air mobility group and traditional aviation companies like Boeing have invested in start-ups.
So what, exactly, would this future look like?
Maybe you’re walking down the street to the vertiport, where you’ll catch an air taxi because you’re a little late to work. Something flies overhead, just above the houses. It may hover over its destination and send a string down to drop a package. Maybe, higher in the sky, there’s a vehicle carrying cargo from a business to the airport, but you don’t really notice because it’s so quiet, unlike a helicopter.
“I think over the next 10ish years ... it’s realistic to say that you’re going to see some on the way to work in the morning,” Hackenberg said.