WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
As the technology to build flying cars improves, and as companies start to look rolling out the first services, the competition is heating up.
Lamborghini recently unveiled their first electric hyper car concept where the car is the battery, but now Aston Martin, the iconic British car brand, is one upping them and slapping their name on the long list of companies, from Airbus, who recently unveiled their PopUp concept, EHang and Volocopter, to express interest in creating what it’s calling a “personal aerial vehicle,” or by any other name, a flying taxi, and they unveiled their concept for a three seat aircraft called the Volante Vision at the Farnborough International Airshow this month.
Like its eventual competitors, the Volante Vision is a Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft, or VTOL, that will use a hybrid electric power train and will have multiple propellers. A horizontally mounted turbo-prop will be on the back of the craft, while a Y-wing at the front of the plane will have two pairs of propellers that can both tilt and rotate.
See the concept for yourself
Of course, this is Aston Martin, so the brand will also incorporate luxury into the design by default, and naturally the flying taxi will be equipped with autonomous navigation and information will be projected onto the all-glass cockpit canopy. Aston Martin sees its flying vehicle as a step up from the ones currently under development by companies like Uber, who recently picked their six favourite flying taxi station concepts, and who plan on offering a more “utilitarian” flying taxi experience, and appealing to a clientele who are “in search of luxury transportation,” for example people in Dubai where they recently trialled the world’s first flying taxi service.
Aston Martin is working with partners on this project that have experience in the aviation industry, including Rolls Royce, the engineering company not the car company, who are developing their own flying taxi, but these projects appear to be separate. After decades in the waiting the marketplace for flying taxi’s is now starting to look decidedly crowded, and it will be interesting to see which of these air taxis actually come to the market.
Source: Aston Martin
