Vertical Aerospace said pricing will be somewhere between a private car and a helicopter.[EDINBURGH] Commuters travelling between London and Brighton could be making the trip via air taxi as soon as 2024. Bristol-based Vertical Aerospace has just unveiled plans for a winged taxi that could make the 76 kilometre trip in as little as 30 minutes . A model prototype will be completed by September 2021, the company said.
The startup plans to manufacture the VA-1X, capable of carrying up to five people including the pilot, in the UK. The emissions-free plane will reach cruise speeds of 150 miles per hour. "We know ground-based congestion is already a problem and infrastructure can't keep up," said chief executive officer Michael Cervenka."While none of us would say an aircraft carrying four or five people is the silver bullet to solve all of that, it clearly has a role to play."
Mr Cervenka, who formerly worked on a flying taxi concept for Rolls-Royce Holdings, said such a model is now becoming viable, commercially, given today's technology. The VA-1X will be powered by lithium-ion batteries, the company said. Zero-carbon flight is a growing area of focus within aerospace as the industry reckons with pressure to lower emissions while also dealing with the biggest crisis in its history. The weight of the batteries poses a challenge in developing such aircraft, making smaller vehicles such as air taxis more achievable.
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