Flying taxis could be coming to Bristol Airport within two years, as part of a government-funded trial in airports across the country. There are plans for zero-emission taxis to fly from city centres to Bristol, Heathrow and London City airports, and the project has now received a huge £9.5 million funding boost from the government, reports The Times.
The trial is being put together by a collaboration between airports, tech companies and others, with plans to launch the first test runs by spring 2024. The aim is for the taxis to replace small helicopters but with much lower fares, operating costs and carbon footprints for the travelling public or commercial organisations.
The three airports are to work with Nats, the air-traffic controller, and two start-up companies — Vertical Aerospace, which is building prototypes of a four-passenger flying taxi, and Skyports, which is developing plans to build stations capable of recharging the vehicles. These stations, known as vertiports, will be constructed at private aerodromes for the initial trials. One of the trial flights will take place between Bristol Airport and an airfield in south west England, although it has not yet been disclosed which one.
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The project has won its funding from the government’s Future Flight Challenge, and the aim is to make it Britain’s first “advanced air mobility ecosystem”. Gary Cutts, a director at UK Research and Innovation who is overseeing the Future Flight Challenge, said the project would put Britain at the global forefront of the zero-emission air travel of the future. Its plan “sets out how air taxis could be in use in the UK by 2030 but a lot needs to occur for that to happen”, he said.
The state funding comes as part of £273 million of government and industry money which was announced yesterday by Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary. “We are placing the aerospace sector directly at the centre of our plans to deliver jobs and grow the economy,” Kwarteng said.
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