Will air transportation become a standard of urban travel?

Urban air mobility is a vastly developing market aiming to introduce air transportation in cities. It is only a matter of time while flying cars (or, to be more specific, personal air vehicles) will become available. But is this new mode of transportation going to be widely available for everyone?

Urban air mobility is still a new concept. It is a good moment to think about the future direction of this futuristic industry. How the implementation of air transportation is going to look like in the city landscape? Will flying cars and VTOL vehicles dominate the sky, and will we need pilot’s license to catch up with a new trend? Or maybe air transportation solutions are going to be reserved for public transport and urban taxi?

Private flying cars…

Let’s be honest: we all have dreamed about flying cars at some point of our life. Visions of flight above the landscape of a futuristic city have been with us for decades. Today, thanks to the development of drone technologies, flying personal air vehicles may finally become reality. But are flying cars going to be available for private customers just like nowadays traditional motor vehicles? 

Air transportation is a far more complicated than driving a car. Flying in an urban landscape is a great challenge even for the most experienced pilots. That’s why driver’s licenses for personal air vehicles are not a viable solution. The best possible outcome for safe flying cars is a remote-control system. By making urban air transportation automated, we will minimize the possibility of error. 

… or public air transportation? 

This leads us to the other concept of UAM development, which differs a lot from the vision of private flying aircraft. Most of the urban air mobility companies prefer to focus on the development of a public air transportation. In this scenario, web of on-demand aerial vehicle and urban taxi executes the idea of urban air mobility.

This solution has many advantages. By favoring unmanned aerial vehicles, UAM developers are able to create a reliable and secure air transportation network. Because of its automatization and centralization, it will be easier to oversee air vehicles. This will help to adjust urban air mobility solutions to the city landscape.

Urban air transportation for everyone 

The high focus on public air transportation doesn’t exclude privately-owned flying cars. Of course, such vehicles needed to be controlled remotely, just like flying urban taxi services. However, due to high costs of production and maintenance of such experimental technology, this option is going to be limited (at least at the beginning) for the wealthiest clients interested in owning a flying car.

But public urban air transportation won’t be so exclusive. On-demand flying urban taxi will be an affordable option for every citizen. As a mean of public transportation, UAM vehicles are going to be far less expensive than private flying cars. Moreover, cities interested in the development of a sustainable and safe urban landscape may even cover the cost of operations, making urban air mobility vehicles an evolution of today’s buses.