After decades of being promised jetpacks it looks like we might – just might – be witnessing the advent of the flying car after all. News arrives that the UK Government and Hyundai are behind the planned infrastructure for electric and autonomous vertical take off/landing (VTOL) vehicles. Yes, it’s happening!
The designs for the ‘urban-Air Port’ are from Six Miles Across London and Urban-Air Port Ltd, already a partner of Hyundai’s Air Mobility Division which plans to commercialise its own electric VTOL aircraft by 2028.
The firm aims to provide zero-emission air passenger journeys and deliveries and predicts that we’ll see the world’s first fully operational hub for electric VTOL cargo drones and flying taxis built in Coventry sometime this year. More than 200 sites are predicted across the next five years.
The urban-Air Port website (www.urbanairport.co.uk) even has an order form where you can request your very own air port.
The £1.2 million funds awarded from the Government’s Future Flight Challenge is hoped to be the foundation for a further £175 million from private industry.
The firm is already a priority infrastructure partner of Hyundai Motor Group’s Urban Air Mobility Division. The Korean brand is supporting Coventry’s Air-One site and intends to build its own electric VTOL aircraft, which it wants to commercialise by 2028.
Ricky Sandhu, founder of Urban Air Port, said: “Flying cars used to be a futuristic flight of fancy. Air-One will bring clean urban air transport to the masses and unleash a new airborne world of zero emission mobility.”
What do you think? Here at NTK Motors we love the idea…until we then think about how badly we drive cars on the ground…