The world’s very first flying car airport has opened in Coventry, with one small problem there will be no cars flying in or out of it.
Urban-Air Port the team behind the ‘Air-One’ facility built their hub in less than 18 months, with the 17,000 square feet intended to be a blueprint for hundreds of similar airports around the world.
While claiming to be the world’s first, the ‘Air-One’ won’t actually be used for departures or arrivals of any so-called air-taxis, but has been set-up to demonstrate what a real world solution might look like. The partnership between Urban Air-Port and Coventry City Council will use drones to show the viability of the site, with the cargo delivering emergency supplies for UK emergency services. Hyundai have supplied a prototype SA-1 air taxi for the ‘Air-One’ to give an idea of the scale of the site, with vehicles taking off from a 14-metre wide launchpad, on top of a prefabricated dome, very much in the style of Thunderbirds.
Air-One will be open to the public at its current location throughout the summer of 2022, before being dismantled and being sent on a UK tour of other suitable locations to demonstrate its viability to other councils.
Industry analysts are predicting that the air-taxi industry could be wirth $12.4 billion globally within the next five years, with the ambition to have a permanent Coventry site fully operational by 2025.
Speaking about the launch of ‘Air One’, Urban Air-Port Founder Ricky Sandhu said: The opening of Air-One is a momentous moment – the starting gun for a new age of transport, an age of zero-emission, congestion-free travel between and within cities that will make people healthier, happier and more connected than ever before. Cars have roads. Trains have rails. Planes have airports. Now, eVTOLs have an Urban-Air Port.
“We wanted to create a multi-functional operations hub for manned and unmanned vehicles providing aircraft command and control, refuelling, cargo and passenger loading.
“This new, green intermodal infrastructure will remove the largest, single constraint to sustainable air mobility and significantly cut congestion and air pollution from passenger and cargo transport and create a zero-emission ecosystem.”