3 ms·

Surprising.. Who else is competing to be an "air taxi"!?

by metadat 4y ago

robinson7d 4y ago
A couple are mentioned in the article: Wisk (invested in by Boeing), and Eve (backed by United Airlines)
- dmix 4y ago
  It's probably the most crowded market for an unproven market category. There's literally a hundred across the globe.
smabie 4y ago
First thing that comes to mind is Uber Blade. Haven't had a chance to use it personally as my flights always seem to come in to late, though.
eli 4y ago
It's linked from the article. Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, Lilium, Vertical Aerospace are some. > Hundreds of companies, new ones and legacy aviation players alike, are working on such vehicles—also called air taxis or eVTOLs (short for electric vertical take off and landing). Five such startups have gone public in the past 12 months. They are trying to shape a near future in which taking a flying cab is an economically viable alternative to taking a terrestrial one. https://archive.ph/gZOlU#selection-237.0-237.373 https://archive.ph/gZOlU#selection-237.0-237.373
carabiner 4y ago
Related - first electric commuter jet, that everyone on HN thought was a scam, just had its first flight: https://tcrn.ch/3frler3 https://tcrn.ch/3frler3
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  (Electric props, not a jet.)
- ck2 4y ago
  Blows my mind we are going to have commercial electric planes BEFORE they bother to get poisonous lead out of avgas for decades after knowing it was deadly
  - hef19898 4y ago
    As crazy as it sounds, getting a conventional (as opposed to eVTOL) aircraft in the air is easier than replacing the fuel thousands of legacy aircraft engines.
  - DarmokJalad1701 4y ago
    FAA has approved G100UL though. Now it is just a matter of scaling up + distribution.
  - RC_ITR 4y ago
    Sure, but that’s a lobbying thing. AVgas isn’t what runs jet engines (as I’m sure you know), it’s what runs hobbyist planes. And given how many other externalities there are to hobbyist flying (noise, airports on prime land, etc.) US hobby pilots find their way onto various political committees almost as matter of survival. It also doesn’t hurt that the average hobbyist pilot is a wealthy white man above 40.
    - akiselev 4y ago
      Lobbying by pilots might redirect some money to upgrade someone's favorite small airport but their influence pales in comparison to long standing national security doctrine. Pilots and airports are part of our emergency infrastructure, the kind you don't think you need until the worst happens like a natural disaster. The FAA, FEMA, and the DoD take that kind of preparedness very seriously so they pretty much refuse to come down on private aviation as long as there's not enough PPLs for their liking.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Unrelated, but wow. From having a super crappy popup, TC and friends went to 3 clicks to turn off all "legitimate" interest permissions. That’s actually quite impressive.
- benj111 4y ago
  But why did they think it was a scam? The linked article only claims an 8 minute flight, so if it's concern about battery weight (which is the only concern I can think of) then the test flight still doesn't really answer that.
  - carabiner 4y ago
    Apparently the company had pivoted from a completely unrelated industry and had very few employees with aerospace backgrounds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18620766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18620766
mradek 4y ago
Just give me one of those jetpacks that was poppin' up everywhere recently on reddit and twitter. Toss 'em all over the city like Birds and let people zip around in 3-d space lol. Why have such large vehicles? Think small, think big.
- Thorrez 4y ago
  Super loud and dangerous...

Surprising.. Who else is competing to be an "air taxi"!?

robinson7d 4y ago

A couple are mentioned in the article: Wisk (invested in by Boeing), and Eve (backed by United Airlines)

dmix 4y ago
It's probably the most crowded market for an unproven market category. There's literally a hundred across the globe.

smabie 4y ago

First thing that comes to mind is Uber Blade. Haven't had a chance to use it personally as my flights always seem to come in to late, though.

eli 4y ago

It's linked from the article. Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, Lilium, Vertical Aerospace are some. > Hundreds of companies, new ones and legacy aviation players alike, are working on such vehicles—also called air taxis or eVTOLs (short for electric vertical take off and landing). Five such startups have gone public in the past 12 months. They are trying to shape a near future in which taking a flying cab is an economically viable alternative to taking a terrestrial one. https://archive.ph/gZOlU#selection-237.0-237.373 https://archive.ph/gZOlU#selection-237.0-237.373

carabiner 4y ago

Related - first electric commuter jet, that everyone on HN thought was a scam, just had its first flight: https://tcrn.ch/3frler3 https://tcrn.ch/3frler3

MichaelCollins 4y ago
(Electric props, not a jet.)
ck2 4y ago
Blows my mind we are going to have commercial electric planes BEFORE they bother to get poisonous lead out of avgas for decades after knowing it was deadly
- hef19898 4y ago
  As crazy as it sounds, getting a conventional (as opposed to eVTOL) aircraft in the air is easier than replacing the fuel thousands of legacy aircraft engines.
- DarmokJalad1701 4y ago
  FAA has approved G100UL though. Now it is just a matter of scaling up + distribution.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  Sure, but that’s a lobbying thing. AVgas isn’t what runs jet engines (as I’m sure you know), it’s what runs hobbyist planes. And given how many other externalities there are to hobbyist flying (noise, airports on prime land, etc.) US hobby pilots find their way onto various political committees almost as matter of survival. It also doesn’t hurt that the average hobbyist pilot is a wealthy white man above 40.
  - akiselev 4y ago
    Lobbying by pilots might redirect some money to upgrade someone's favorite small airport but their influence pales in comparison to long standing national security doctrine. Pilots and airports are part of our emergency infrastructure, the kind you don't think you need until the worst happens like a natural disaster. The FAA, FEMA, and the DoD take that kind of preparedness very seriously so they pretty much refuse to come down on private aviation as long as there's not enough PPLs for their liking.
Semaphor 4y ago
Unrelated, but wow. From having a super crappy popup, TC and friends went to 3 clicks to turn off all "legitimate" interest permissions. That’s actually quite impressive.
benj111 4y ago
But why did they think it was a scam? The linked article only claims an 8 minute flight, so if it's concern about battery weight (which is the only concern I can think of) then the test flight still doesn't really answer that.
- carabiner 4y ago
  Apparently the company had pivoted from a completely unrelated industry and had very few employees with aerospace backgrounds: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18620766 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18620766

mradek 4y ago

Just give me one of those jetpacks that was poppin' up everywhere recently on reddit and twitter. Toss 'em all over the city like Birds and let people zip around in 3-d space lol. Why have such large vehicles? Think small, think big.

Thorrez 4y ago
Super loud and dangerous...