LONDON - The original Blade Runner film took place in an imagined Los Angeles of 2019, a futuristic city where acid rain fell from skies crowded with “skimmers”: flying cars that zipped along aerial highways. Since the film’s 1982 debut, technology has advanced in ways that Hollywood might never have predicted – selfie sticks, murder drones, hashtag politics – yet hovercraft taxis still seem a far-off fantasy, reserved for science-fiction novels and theme park rides, Adrienne Berhard reports for the BBC. Continue reading original article.
The Intelligent Aerospace take:
November 13, 2020 -While it isn't the future envisioned by the animators of "The Jetsons," the urban air mobility (UAM) market is booming. In fact, as of 2019, there were more than 200 designs for electronic, vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) "flying taxis." Many are just designs, but there have been test flights with human passengers. With urbanization - people moving from the countryside to dense cities - still taking place around the world, it is projected that the UAM market could reach as much as $1.5 trillion by 2040. Berhard's piece for the BBC dives into the burgeoning market and its regulation.
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Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace
