Air-One: First Airport for Drones and Flying Cars
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The first electric flying cars and drone airport recently opened in the center of a city in the United Kingdom. It will be the blueprint for many more worldwide if it works out.
The pop-up Air-One was built in the centre of the city of Coventry. It is created for zero-emission electric drones, and air taxis and the airport get its power from hydrogen fuel cells.
Air-One Airport Startup
The airport is a partnership between the tech start-up Urban-Airport Ltd and Coventry City Council to prove the potential of urban air mobility to reduce traffic and air pollution.
Hyundai air mobility has sent their full-size model of its SA-1 air taxi; it will be on display at the airport. However, urban-Airport claims that the shortage of proper infrastructure is one of the largest hurdles to developing the electric vertical take-off (eVTOL) aircraft.
Zero-Emission Autonomous Air-One Airport
Air-One is created to be fully autonomous to integrate with electric vehicles to develop a sustainable public transport system. Therefore, it is very easy to build. For example, the entire project only took 15 months from the planning stage to being fully developed.
Stating the opening was a meaningful moment, the founder of Urban-Airport, Ricky Sandhu, said it was the beginning of “a new era of transport, an era of zero-emission, traffic-free travel within and between cities. That will make people happier, healthier, and more connected.”
The Future of Urban-Airport Transport
Scientists believe the advanced air mobility technology market could reach $12 billion worldwide by 2027.
Air-One is set to be open to the public during the summer of 2022, and then Urban-Airport plans to take it apart and move it to other places in the United Kingdom so that others can view the concept. While the Coventry site is open to the public, there will be demonstration flights by freight drones and police.
They plan to open over 200 “vertiports” worldwide, with planning already underway in Los Angeles, London, Australia, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Southeast Asia, and South Korea.
“Trains have rails. Cars have roads. Planes have airports. Now, eVTOLs have an Urban-Airport,” they said.
