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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Milo Boyd

Airline launching 'flying taxi' to help get commuters to airports

Forget trying to find an Uber or flag down a taxi - soon passengers in a rush to the airport will be able to take a 'flying taxi' in the USA.

United Airlines is launching a new electric air taxi service, which will run between Downtown Manhattan Heliport to Newark Airport.

The aircraft is similar to a helicopter in that it can take-off and land vertically, with 12 smaller rotas running along the side of plane-like wings taking the vehicle into the air.

Dubbed 'the Midnight', it is designed to ferry four passengers at speeds of up to 150mph.

United is planning to get the heli-plane designed by Archer up and running by 2025, in a bid to cut the commute time between the two airports.

United Airlines wants the route up and running in three years (Getty Images)

The journey would be reduced to less than ten minutes, shaving at least 12 minutes off the time it currently takes via car.

Known as eVTOL aircrafts, the vehicle are designed to be quieter and more sustainable alternatives to traditional helicopters.

“Once operational, electric air taxis will fundamentally change how United customers experience comfort, convenience, and efficiency during their commutes to the airport,” Michael Leskinen, president of United Airlines Ventures, said in a release on Thursday.

“Archer’s New York to Newark route marks another important benchmark towards providing a carbon-neutral and safe commute that drastically reduces the travel time and produces a fraction of the sound emitted by helicopters."

The cost of taking such a flight is not yet clear, although a commercial helicopter ride from the airport to to JFK currently costs from $195 (£166) one way, Forbes reports.

It is unclear quite how environmentally friendly such aircraft will be.

While they will almost certainly produce less emissions per-passenger-per-mile than helicopters, the weight and aerodynamics of a typical helicopter means they generally use dozens of times more fuel per mile than a car carrying an equivalent amount of passengers.

Even though electric helicopters are running off a potentially cleaner source of energy, the effort of getting a heavy vehicle in the air will still require a huge amount of power.

Do you think they should introduce similar services in the UK? Let us know in the comments below.

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