Volocopter, a German aerospace startup, organized a display of its Volocopter 2X electric aircraft at the Oshkosh Air Show in Wisconsin, USA.
A company statement stated that the aircraft completed the first public test flight of an all-electric vertical take-off and landing crew - known as "eVTOL" - in the United States.
The Volocopter 2X took off at 164 feet (50 meters) and flew for 4 minutes at a top speed of 18 miles (29 kilometers) per hour over Whitman Regional Airport as part of AirVenture Oshkosh 2021.
Florian Reuters, Volocopter CEO, said the trial was "a milestone for the industry and a reminder that a commercial launch is fast approaching".
"We can talk about our aviation certification leadership, low noise emissions, and global partnerships that we want, but nothing shows how close we are to launching an urban air mobility as a service project like driving an air taxi through crowds and inviting people to sit in our plane," he added. .
During the event, guests viewed a Volocopter and were allowed to sit in a VoloCity plane to get the feel of flying the plane itself.
And this isn't Volocopter's first flight in the air, as the startup's first manned flight was launched in Germany in 2016 for its all-electric 18-propeller plane.
Volocopter has conducted several test flights in Helsinki, Stuttgart, Dubai and Singapore, and in March the startup issued a statement saying that the air taxi would start service "in two years".
By successfully conducting the first test flight of an air taxi in the United States;
Volocopter made an important step into the future;
Flying taxis will transport passengers and goods between crowded urban areas.
According to a report on Yahoo!
Volocopter is working hard "to deliver electric flights to cities around the world in the next two to three years."