Bruce Willis' yellow flying taxi, aka Korben Dallas, in Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element struck the spirits, with these chase scenes over futuristic megacities. The concept has been studied since the mid-2000s by NASA, the American (FAA) and European (EASA) aviation safety agencies, but also by Airbus and Boeing as well as by start-ups. Their goal? Revolutionize air mobility, by offering a flexible, ecological and low-noise alternative to cars, stuck in the traffic jams of large cities.
Today, the first flying taxis are about to take off. "In recent months, a milestone has been reached: we have moved from concepts and models to prototypes and test flights," says Jean-Baptiste Nau, Senior Project Manager at Archery Strategy Consulting. In 2024, the first electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the Volocity, developed by the start-up...
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