<
https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/13/joby-volocopter-fly-electric-air-taxis-over-new-york-city/>
"Joby Aviation and Volocopter gave the public a vivid glimpse of what the
future of aviation might look like this weekend, with both companies performing
brief demonstration flights of their electric aircraft in New York City.
The demonstration flights were conducted during a press conference on Sunday,
during which New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would
electrify two of the three heliports located in Manhattan — Downtown Manhattan
Heliport and East 34th Street. (The third heliport is privately owned.) Beta
Technologies, which is also developing an electric aircraft, showed off its
interoperable aircraft charging technology at the event.
The move is a huge win for so-called “electric vertical take-off and landing”
(eVTOL) developers, who will likely need hefty public investment in order to
get their commercial air taxi service off the ground by the middle of the
decade. Some of this investment has already started to materialize: in
September, Joby announced that it would site its new aircraft factory in
Dayton, Ohio, in a deal sweetened by upwards of $325 million in state
incentives and benefits.
The eVTOL industry is benefiting from some major tailwinds — notably, climate
commitments from dozens of cities, including New York City, to aggressively
reduce carbon emissions and transition to clean energy. New York City’s aim is
to reduce emissions by 80% from a 2005 baseline by 2050 — and electrifying the
two heliports under its jurisdiction is one part of that.
Joby Aviation has had New York City in mind for some time. In October last
year, the company announced that it would roll out its commercial service in
New York and Los Angeles first, as part of a landmark “city-to-airport” service
deal with its investor Delta Airlines. Joby estimated that the service could
shrink the transit time from Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport
to just seven minutes."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-domestic-violence-australia-malaria-rwanda-whales-dominica/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
