A new type of air terminal opens for flying taxis
Urban air-travel takes a step closer
As the morning mist slowly clears over Pontoise-Cormeilles, a regional airport 40km north-west of central Paris, it is time to check in at the vertiport. This is the name the aviation industry has adopted to describe a new type of air terminal. Vertiports will be used by eVTOLs, or flying taxis as they are sometimes called. As the name indicates, these aircraft take off and land vertically, like helicopters. But instead of being powered by jet turbines they rely on sets of electrically driven rotors, much like hovering drones.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Welcome to the vertiport”
From the November 19th 2022 edition
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