Remember the flying taxis in the film Back To The Future II? The technology might soon become a reality in France.
In order to minimise traffic woes during the 2024 Olympic Games, the city of Paris plans to offer airborne taxis to visitors at airports and tournament sites.
The journey to central Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport takes about an hour in trains and buses. However, if Aeroports de Paris (ADP), Airbus and the RATP regional transport actually manage to implement the airborne taxis project, the travel time will come down drastically.
At last week’s Paris Air Show, Airbus, RATP and ADP made an announcement that the 2024 Summer Olympic games will present the perfect opportunity to bring into service futuristic Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) machine, reported AFP.
“In 2010, for the first time, more than half of humanity was living in urban zones and we think we shall surpass 60 percent by 2030,” Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury told the news agency.
As the world looks to move beyond and above saturated motorways due to environmental conditions, VTOL converts are already becoming popular in many countries.
According to local reports, ADP has been given time until the end of the year to finalise a site capable of hosting flying taxis from aerodromes around Paris. As of now, the authorities are looking to have venues ready in 18 months. Once everything is in place, the service would see taxis taking-off from ‘Vertiports’ every six minutes.
ADP is working hard alongside Airbus, which has done a lot of research on full electric propulsion in the past few years.
The company already has two prototypes – single-seater “Vahana” and the four-seater variant “CityAirbus”.
“This project reduces constraints not only in terms of infrastructure but also concerning air traffic as it involves experimenting in a specific (air) corridor,” Jean-Louis Rassineux, head of aeronautics and defence issues for Deloitte, told the news agency.
Courtesy: Times Now
