One of the biggest features of the last ITS World Congress, Volocopter, has announced plans to bring its air taxi service to American cities.
The German start-up has announced the Federal Aviation Administration has positively accepted their application for concurrent Type Certificate validation. It explains that this sets the basis for Volocopter to bring electric air taxi services to the American market.
Volocopter is the first and only electric vertical take-off and landing company in the world with Design Organisation Approval, the license to develop and build certified aircraft, from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Volocopter demonstrated its capabilities at the 2019 ITS World Congress in Singapore when it flew over the iconic Marina Bay.
“We are the ‘Pioneer of Urban Air Mobility’ and our accomplishments are setting the stage for more extensive adoption of UAM implementation by our industry. By focusing on a collaborative approach to success, we are bringing excellence, expertise, and experience to the table together with our partners, and with that, we are leading the way to bring urban air mobility to life in cities around the globe,” said Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter. “From the beginning, we have considered the U.S. an important market for our services. Certification is the key to this market, and we are excited to begin the process of seeking approval from the FAA to introduce this innovative era of mobility not only in Europe and Asia but also in the U.S.”
The VoloCity, Volocopter’s electric air taxi, is designed to meet the highest aircraft safety standards and features the lowest noise development in the industry. Volocopter developed the VoloCity specifically to meet growing demand for better intra-city mobility in large cities like Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington DC, among others. Volocopter says these air taxi services would promote local job opportunities, save people time, and reduce costs associated with spending hours in traffic by simply flying over it. Furthermore, Volocopter’s business plan aims to provide scalable air taxi services at costs comparable to regular taxi services.
(Picture – Paul Hutton, Highways News)
