Taxi Fly

These five aviation and space technology firms build "flying taxis".

We had our second yearly " flying taxi " convention this weekend in Los Angeles, so we have a series of great new concepts of strange UAVs and helicopters hybrid with which you can fly through the city sometime in the next ten years. Both Embraer and Pipistrelcraft, two Uber based airframe companies, have published new concepts of airplanes they want to build for the rides' challenging venture.

The Californian Karem, the youngest airplane producer in partnership with Uber, also had a new car to offer. However, Uber has put together an amazing selection of airplane suppliers to help realise his visions of municipal aerial transportation. About has said that it is looking for companies that can fulfill its technological requirements - electrically driven, low-noise and vertically launched take-off and land capability - and a business that can scale-out manufacturing to produce ten thousand cars to satisfy the demands for Uber's on-demand services.

While Karem is a smaller airplane maker, it is still an interesting option for Uber. Karem, President and CEO of the Group, is a frontrunner in unmanned air vehicle technologies. About published early this morning pictures of his own conceptual airplane and had a miniscule scale airplane exhibited at the convention. However, it is important to keep in mind that Uber does not intend to manufacture any of the cars used for its air taxi facilities.

Instead, it will rely on its fabrication partner to engineer and construct these electrical verticals (eVTOLs), as well as to carry out large volume fabrication to satisfy the requirements of the planned municipal aviation movement services. Embraer, the Brasilian airplane manufacturer, is over 48 years old and thus one of the more seasoned producers that has joined Uber's team.

Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, the corporation employs approximately 19,000 people around the world, generates $5.8 billion in sales, and manufactures civil, defense and agriculture equipment. "That is a great approach, but a great big challange, no question," said Embraer CEO Paulo Cesar Silva. At the Uber meeting, John Langford, CEO of Aurora, deplored the fact that there have been five centuries of aerospace engineering that has not shifted the pin for on-demand transport or reverse the downtrend in pilots.

Karem's "Butterfly" design is a quadsiltrotor with four large fan blades attached to the wing and stern. Karem Aircraft CEO Ben Tigner said, "The car has bigger propulsion units than some of the other prototype eVTOLs, resulting in less need for the car's batteries. Work is underway to build a complete demonstration of Karem's Butterfly design.

Nevertheless, civil and defence heliports and tilt rotors account for the lion's share of sales. This year Bell presented its aerial taxi cab design for the first time at CES. In many respects, the Lufttaxis design is similar to another airplane introduced last year: the FCX-001. It looked like a Metal Gear Solid chopper and was to be used as a stage for some of Bell's thoughts on the direction of vertically flying in the world.

The Pipistrel Vertical Solutions division of Pipistrel International took the opportunity of the Uber meeting to transform itself into Pipistrel Vertical Solutions. "It already manufactures small, electrically propelled airplanes that can be bought today. His latest design looks right out of Star Wars and has many of the tilt rotors and propellers that the other prototype models have.

R&D Pipistrel CEO Tine Tomazic said that the plane will be able to fly longer routes at higher velocities than its predecessors. It will also be part of an "eVTOL family" that will include three more conceptual planes, Tomazic added.