INFOGRAPHIC
Preparing Air Taxis for Takeoff
For decades, entrepreneurs have been promoting the idea of small vertical takeoff and landing aircraft as a means to leapfrog over congested urban traffic.
The city-states of the United Arab Emirates pride themselves on their futuristic skylines and embrace of ultramodern technology. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when Abu Dhabi announced in December 2024 that it was partnering with Archer Aviation to launch a commercial air taxi service using the company’s battery-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. According to the company, flights are scheduled to begin later this year.
Commercialization is a huge milestone for the industry, which has had to weather both the growing pains of multiple startups looking for investment resources as well as a cash crunch in recent years as the money has begun to dry up. In fact, early leaders such as Lilium and Volocopter have announced they’ve run out of money in the past 12 months.
But companies such as Archer and Joby Aviation are making progress. And with Federal Aviation Administration rules for eVTOLs published in October 2024—agency administrator Mike Whitaker said, “Powered lift aircraft are the first new category of aircraft in nearly 80 years”—we’ve never been closer to being able to hail an air taxi. So, how do they work?
VTOL Basics
Unlike conventional aircraft, which speed down runways to move air over their wings, VTOLs are capable of taking off from a confined space. The distinction between VTOLs and helicopters is in the number of propulsion units: Helicopters have one or two large rotors, while electric air taxis are designed to have at least four and sometimes more than a dozen small propellors. The extra engines provide a safety factor in case one fails.
While many VTOLs rely solely on rotors to stay aloft, some hybrid aircraft feature short wings to provide some lift.
Battery Power
Aircraft—especially rotorcraft—are power-hungry. Until recently, batteries haven’t been able to provide enough power over long enough time to propel anything larger than a hobbyist drone. Due to advances in technology emerging from the electric vehicle industry, batteries now have the potential to power small VTOL aircraft for a few dozen miles, which is far enough for flights between airports and other locations within a single metropolitan area.
Air taxi companies are focused on battery power to lower the noise and pollution from their aircraft. It’s feared that potential neighbors would resist an air-taxi landing pad if the aircraft were as disruptive as conventional helicopters.
Urban Networks
Due to their limited range, air taxis aren’t designed for long-distance travel. Instead, companies hope to establish a network of skyports where passengers can book a flight on the spot and hop in a waiting aircraft. A typical network would link metropolitan airports with locations such as central business districts, stadiums, or tourist destinations. In a congested New York City, for instance, an air taxi could whisk customers from Wall Street to JFK Airport in as little as seven minutes, compared to an hour by car. (See video below.)
Air taxi companies could expand their networks as demand grows, adding suburban satellite cities and college towns to the list of destinations.
Business Models
For their initial introduction, air taxis would be piloted. But the ratio of passengers to pilots–perhaps as low as two or three to one if a six-seat air taxi flies half-full–makes that an expensive proposition, and that’s on top of the infrastructure costs that McKinsey and Company estimates could be as high as $300 million for a single urban network.
Many companies are pinning their hopes on AI capable of self-piloting these small aircraft along short, fixed routes to reduce costs. It remains to be seen how well pilotless aircraft would be accepted by passengers, and whether regulators would allow them to fly over crowded cities.
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