The world’s first airport for flying cars (aka air taxis) and drones has landed in Coventry in the United Kingdom.
It could inspire other nations to follow suit, the World Economic Forum reports, adding the airport is designed to be fully autonomous and will integrate with EVs to create a sustainable public transport network.
Planned to be the first of hundreds of city-centre zero-emission airports, the pop-up Air-One from Urban-Air Port designed for zero-emission drones and air taxis is powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
The project is a partnership between the Coventry City Council and UK start-up Urban-Air Port to demonstrate the potential of urban air mobility to cut congestion and air pollution, the company saying a lack of suitable infrastructure is one of the biggest obstacles to electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
Hyundai’s air mobility arm has provided a full-size model of its SA-1 air taxi for show at the airport.
Easy to build, the Coventry project took 15 months from planning to completion and will include demonstration flights by police and freight drones.
Air-One is reportedly open until May 15 and will be dismantled later this year and tour the UK.
Urban-Air Port founder Ricky Sandhu says it’s the start of “a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier and more connected”.
He hopes to open more than 200 similar “vertiports” globally, including in Australia, South-East Asia, London, and parts of Europe and the US.
The market for advanced air mobility could reach A$17.8 billion worldwide by 2027.
Urban-Air Port designs, develops, manufactures, sells and operates ground, air and digital infrastructure for new forms of sustainable urban air transport such as air taxis and autonomous delivery drones.
