World's First Urban Drone and Flying Taxi Airport to Open in Coventry - Newslibre

World’s First Urban Airport for Drone and Flying Taxis to Open in Coventry

The UK government has given a go-ahead for the world’s first urban airport dedicated to electric air-taxis and drones, with funding opportunities already on the way for the massive project.

The airport will be named Air-One and is expected to be opened in November as part of Coventry’s ‘City of Culture’ celebrations. Its creators, a new company called Urban Air Port, will use the event to demonstrate how an off-grid, hydrogen-powered urban airport would work.

The transportation hub will also provide a space for the charging and loading of drones that would ferry deliveries around the city which is expected to reduce congestion and therefore improve air quality.

The project also has ambitions to host electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), which could shuttle passengers into the city centre and back.

Urban Air Port aims for the Air-One to be a hub at the heart of a network of drone traffic corridors. One of the proposed ‘highways in the sky’ is the 15km route between Coventry and Kenilworth, which is currently being mapped out.

This small airport could also be dropped in to provide infrastructure where it’s needed, according to Ricky Sandhu, Urban Air Port’s founder and CEO. “We’ve started having conversations with the military, who in the event of a natural disaster could use the Urban Air Port to provide instant connectivity,” he says.

As exciting as jetting around in flying cars sounds, the boring stuff, like airports, must be considered first. “Cars need roads. Trains need rails. Planes need airports. eVTOLs will need Urban Air Ports,” Sandhu explains.

The urban airport will provide a space for the charging and loading of drones that would ferry deliveries around the city

“Over a hundred years ago, the world’s first commercial flight took off, creating the modern connected world. Urban Air Port will improve connectivity across our cities, boost productivity and help the UK to take the lead in a whole new clean global economy.”

“Let’s get ahead of the curve for the next wave of electric mobility, and get the infrastructure in now.“

While estimates from NASA value the urban-air mobility in the US alone at up to £375 billion in the near future, the current lack of infrastructure to support this novel technology presents a challenge.

By creating their new hub, the company has begun to tackle this challenge and hope to install over 200 zero emission electric airports globally within the next five years.


The article was originally published and written by Frankie Macpherson via Science Focus 

 

Also read: SafeBoda Pausing Operations In Kenya Could Be A Sign Of What’s To Come In The Near Future

World's First Urban Airport for Drone and Flying Taxis to Open in Coventry 1

Author: Allan Bangirana

Allan Bangirana has a taste for all kinds of topics and usually writes about tech, entertainment, sports and community projects that make a difference in society.

He writes for Newslibre and Spur Magazine. He is also the co-founder of the Innovware project and a freelance consultant passionate about technology and web.

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