Taking a ride on a flying air taxi could become as cheap as taking an Uber ride, and get you where you’re going in as little as a third of the time, according to a NASA concept study. Moore’s presentation was part of a status report on “flying cars” — a science-fiction phrase that’s frowned upon by the folks who are actually working on flying cars. The experts prefer terms such as roadable aircraft, hybrid air systems … or air taxis.
But NASA’s scenario comes with a few big “ifs.” You knew there’d be some ifs, right?
- The study assumes the development of a new kind of vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, powered by electricity-driven propellers. Distributed electric propulsion, or DEP, is the focus of NASA’s LEAPTech initiativeas well as an assortment of commercial ventures.
- To provide enough range, the aircraft would have to use next-generation batteries with at least twice the energy density that’s currently commercially available— around 400 watt-hours per kilogram.
- There’d have to be an infrastructure to support all those Uber Air flights. The NASA study suggests putting helipads on the roofs of more urban buildings, in the middle of highway cloverleafs, or even on floating barges. Researchers estimate that there’s room for at least 200 cloverleaf pads in the Silicon Valley region they targeted.
- The Federal Aviation Administration would have to sign off on the regulations for all those added flights. NASA’s study determined that the helipads could be built to fit the FAA’s clearance restrictions.
- To reduce costs, the model calls for an aircraft capable of carrying a pilot and one passenger. NASA says that should cover more than 70 percent of the trips currently conducted by Uber.
- The Uber-style model is key to making the economics work: NASA’s study assumes that each air taxi would be in the air 1,500 hours a year, or roughly 30 hours a week. “Utilization is king,” Moore said.
I think there will be major disruption to transportation in the next two to three decades, that would have a significant impact on the need/demand for an air taxi service. This includes, but is not limited to: 1. autonomous and interconnected cars – which significantly improves capacity on existing roads, as vehicles will be able to travel closer together, at higher speeds. The time spent in cars, will be more productive; 2. Virtual Reality and Higher bandwidth connectivity. Why drive to the office, when at home, you can recreate the office virtually. Will have a dramatic impact on the number of workers that telecommute and the percentage of time they do so. The developments have far less challenges that those described above for air taxi service. Having to wait for the FAA alone will probably take 50 years.
Sited Used:
http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-study-says-air-taxis-uber-of-future-2015-9
In my opinion, I think the idea of an air taxi is not very realistic right now. First off, I feel like it would require a lot of work to make it happen, mainly including getting it passed by the FAA. As stated above, it would take years and years for this to be passed, and I don’t think it is worth the time and energy. Ubers are very popular in today’s day and age, and thus far, they are doing so well it looks like the taxi services are getting run out of business. I agree that there is always room for improvement with the Uber business and people should continue to look for ways to make it even more efficient, but creating ‘air Ubers’ seems like an unnecessary leap. I don’t like how there would only be room for one passenger, as it would cause problems with efficiency and wouldn’t work with groups traveling together. This also would reduce the amount of trips that can be taken by roughly 30%. Although they would be able to reduce travel time, sales could decrease due to the fact that demand would be higher than the amount of air Ubers available.