Is America ready for air taxis?

Next time you’re out, look up.

You might see houses, buildings, a few trees. Further up you can see some clouds, an airliner, a military plane. Maybe there is a helicopter.

In other words, not much. It changes.

Aerospace engineers and entrepreneurs around the world are in a race to fundamentally change the way we see the sky.

You’re working on new aircraft – in an industry called Advanced Air Mobility – that will be used to drop packages on your doorstep, move people and cargo over shorter distances, and even give people the ability to call air taxis.

“It’s not an if, it’s a when,” said Davis Hackenberg, NASA’s advanced air mobility project manager. “Electric aviation will happen.”

Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives passed a bill, sponsored by Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids, that would set up a working group to look into what the federal government needs to do about emerging industries. It is now going to the US Senate, where it is headed by Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran.

The bill is an attempt to prepare the government for what is likely to change the future of transport. It will mean everything from new safety regulations to infrastructure in the form of “vertiports” to engaging the public with the concept of drone-like airplanes flying through their neighborhood.

For almost a century, air travel was largely limited to planes and helicopters. For the average passenger for much of that time, it means walking to an airport, sitting for an hour, and huddling into a seat that seems to be getting smaller every year.

But technology could soon change the way we think about flying.

Batteries are getting smaller and smaller. The materials used to build the aircraft are lighter than ever. Software is becoming more and more sophisticated. A modern cockpit from 20 years ago can’t do half as much as a phone in your pocket, says Pierre Harter, director of research and development at the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University.

In the last 15 years it has enabled an even stronger focus on electrical engineering in aviation. This is allowed for new aircraft designs. It changed the way they fly. The way airplanes can be used has changed. This has made them quieter so that they can get closer to people’s homes.

“It’s a big, wide-open Wild West,” said Harter. “There are a lot of people out there, a lot of dreamers, trying to crack this nut. There are many people who are not traditional in the aerospace industry who think they can crack this nut, too. “

An end to the transport deserts?

Companies like Joby Aviation, which have investments from Uber, are already testing cars in hopes of getting them certified by the FAA. Amazon and Wing, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, already have permission to use drones to deliver parcels in some locations, including Frisco and Little Elm. Hyundai has an advanced air mobility company and traditional aviation companies like Boeing have invested in startups.

So what exactly would this future look like?

Maybe you will go down the street to Vertiport, where you will catch an air taxi because you are a little late for work. Something is flying overhead, right over the houses. It can hover over its target and send a string down to drop a package. Maybe there is a vehicle higher up in the sky that transports cargo from a store to the airport, but you don’t really notice it because it’s so quiet, unlike a helicopter.

“I think in the next 10 years … it’s realistic to say that you will see some on your way to work in the morning,” said Hackenberg.

It won’t all happen at once. First, Harter said, we’ll likely see some of these planes with a pilot carrying boxes from one place to another. These trips would allow companies to learn about the technology and meet safety requirements so they could fly with passengers. Then it starts to become autonomous.

“It won’t be autonomous in the first place,” said Harter. “There just needs to be a lot of development, a lot of infrastructure to be built, a lot of public trust to be built, not to mention that regulators have to approve everything first.”

If the new planes become more frequent, the result could be as simple as reducing travel time within urban and suburban areas, making it a little easier to get to the airport or downtown from the suburbs. But they could also help get rid of “transport deserts” so that a doctor can more easily reach a patient in a rural area with limited access to a hospital.

“I think part of the challenge will depend heavily on the priorities of the ward,” said Nancy Mendonca, director of ward integration for NASA’s AAM mission. “And then understand what the local community wants.”

Security and Regulations

There are still many unanswered questions before advanced air mobility becomes commonplace. There are safeguards and regulations that need to be developed. There is pilot training and personnel development. There’s the cost. It is to be found out who would use this type of transportation. It is worth considering whether people want these planes close to their homes, no matter how quiet companies they are.

There are more technological advances that need to happen if you want it to go further than 250 miles and be unmanned. There is infrastructure that cities and municipalities have to create. There will be a dispute over where to place vertiports. It will raise questions of access, whether they are just toys for the bourgeoisie or are available to the hoi polloi.

The working group that would be formed when the bill was passed by Congress would be tasked with answering some of these questions.

“When we first discussed drones, we somehow got around the corner,” said Davids. “And I want to make sure this doesn’t happen with this new technology.”

Davids said she was “excited” about the industry, which is expected to grow significantly over the next 15 years. A report produced by Deloitte in January predicted the advanced air mobility market could rake in an estimated $ 115 billion and employ more than 280,000 people by 2035.

NASA’s Hackenberg said there would be intense competition around the world and said he thought America had to “win”.

“Aviation is the future,” said Hackenberg. “There’s a lot of competition. It’s like the automotive industry; it is distributed … vehicles and such are built everywhere. But we have to own it. We need the General Motors and the Fords. And hopefully the Toyotas and Teslas and everything else. “

Daniel Desrochers,

The Kansas City Star (TNS)

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