Move Over George Jetson, Air Taxis to Debut in Singapore in 2019
SINGAPORE – The Jetsons zoomed around in flying cars in a cartoon series which featured life in 2062.
But those in Singapore may not have to wait that long to see one up close with German aviation start-up Volocopter announcing it will perform a series of urban flight tests of its air taxis in the Republic in the second half of 2019.
The flight tests are designed to validate and verify the ability of Volocopter’s electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles to operate in Singapore’s urban environment.
The firm’s air taxi resembles a helicopter, but is based on drone technology and can fly two people for about 30km.
The Volocopter is designed specifically for inner city missions and can carry 160kg.
In a statement on Wednesday (Oct 18), the company said the tests, which will culminate in public demo flights, are supported by the Ministry of Transport, Economic Development Board and Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS).
Volocopter and CAAS will collaborate to establish the scope of the test flights and ensure that they meet the necessary requirements.
We’ve been talking flying cars ever since George Jetson and his wild ass family used to peruse the skies on our televisions back in the 60s. Well, now Singapore is going to make that fantasy a reality.
Well, sort of. We aren’t going to have Hondas, Fords, or flying green saucers humming around up there, but people are going to be able to transport from place to place in the air now without having to go through the long, loving lines of TSA.
Yeah, I know you can get TSA pre-check for like $75, but I’m too poor / too lazy to actually do it. Speaking of money, that brings me to my first question about these flying taxi helicopter things. What type of cost are we looking at here? Obviously, unlike airplanes that travel long distances, these rides would take place for a much shorter distance. The story said that the taxis will travel up to 30 km. I don’t speak the metric system, but Google tells me that’s about 18 miles. I think it would be very cool to take an air taxi downtown on Friday night, but that usually costs me about $10-$15. If you’re telling me that it’s going to have an absurd up-charge then my ass will be staying on land. I’ll save my money to buy booze for all the hot chicks I talk to at the bar.
Next question: who’s driving this thing? The report says that it can be driven by a person, or it can be automated. Ummm, there is not a chance in hell that I’m getting into an aircraft that doesn’t have a driver. I know that airplanes are on autopilot or whatever for the majority of the ride, but if that thing starts to go down I’d like to have a human being up the that knows how to fly. I only use taxis and Ubers when I am drinking because, well, if I’m not drinking then I can drive. So it probably wouldn’t be a good idea if there wasn’t a sober, responsible person in the air during these rides. We all know what happens when intoxicated people try to fly.
Final question, for now, is when are these bad boys going to make their way to the United States? It says that these test flights will be completed in 2019, with the first commercial air taxi routes to open within the next 3 to 5 years. With all due respect to the rest of the world, I lay my head at night in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Anything that is going on outside these borders is fugazi to me. So they can fly all over Singapore and it won’t affect my life, but when am I going to see some air taxis on this side of the pond?
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Shit, I just had another question. What happens if there’s a crash? Does it go down and crash on people and cars? I’m officially out on air taxis now until I get that answer. Would there be taxis flying in a stones throw distance over our heads, or would they be really high up like airplanes? I can’t imagine they’re exactly like helicopters because, well then they’d be helicopters. And will there be specific routes and such or is it a free for all up there? Let them test everything out over in Singapore until we have all the facts and details hashed out. Then you can bring them over to America for us to play with.