Volocopter: The Drone Air Taxi
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- Volocopter is Dubai’s electrically self-piloting air taxi service, which is a noise-free micro helicopter that underwent its first public test in September 2017.
- Volocopters are two-passenger, seat-capacity microhelicopters.
- The 6.5-foot-high copter is topped by a 22-foot-wide hoop studded with 18 rotors.
- This 2-seater, 18-rotor unmanned vehicle took off for 5 minutes above a strip of sand on the Gulf Coast.
- This flight was watched by Crown Prince Sheikh Hamad Bin Mohammed.
- Dubai is planning to become a smart city.
- This air taxi, or drone, was designed by the German firm Volocopter and was previously tested in Germany in April 2017.
- Chinese rival firm EHANG was supposed to be the first to launch a fleet of flying taxis.
- This drone taxi can fly over 15 ft of water and the flyer is not self-driving but is classified as an ultralight aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration, that’s why a full pilot license is not required – as lon as you fly it in uncongested areas.
- We hope that it will be available in 2018 in Dubai sky.
- Prince of Dubai said that “Encouraging innovation and adopting the latest technologies contribute not only to the country’s development but also build bridges into the future,”
- A3 think tank from EADS company’s Airbus is working on the self-piloting single-seater Vahana, which flight range will be approximately 50 miles.
- Airbus is marketing this not as a potential ait taxi but also as a delivery drone or emergency vehicle.
- The company plans to start test flights of a full scale prototype in Oregon this year.
- Uber is also planning to test flying car testing in 2020 with other companies .
- Google co founder Larry Page and ceo of its parent company Alphabet Inc, has invested more than $ 100 million in Kitty Hawk Corporation, whose electric flyer looks like spiderman’s airborne motorcycle.
