Uber Sets Its Sights Skyward: For Uber devotees around the world, the announcement of their urban “air taxi” service testing by 2020 at the recent Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas, Texas came as very welcomed news.
Late last year, Uber began talking about its “Elevate” program – a discussion about adding flying cars to its services in the not-so-distant future. Now, it appears that future timeline has been further defined, as Uber appears to be most serious about creating a viable air taxi service within three short years and having it in service as soon as 2023.
It has tasked aviation giants, Bell Helicopters, Aurora Flight Sciences, Pipistrel Aircraft, Embraer, and Mooney with the mammoth job of designing and building an affordable, four-passenger, all-electric vehicle that is easy and safe to fly. Plus, it would be environmentally friendly.
Though the vehicle Uber envisions would be more like a cousin to the helicopter because of its vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, it would be far quieter and agile for manoeuvring in congested city airspace. It could operate in and out of small municipal skyports – or vertiports – built aloft office buildings and shopping centres.
Uber is still in the early stages of planning so details like costs, wait times and participating cities have not been decided. Uber’s chief product officer, Jeff Holden surmises the rate per mile would be comparable to that of an Uber car ride per passenger.
Dallas-Fort Worth is slated to be the first test city in 2020 for the UberAIR vehicle, and it will be showcased prominently at the World Expo in Dubai later that same year. Fort Worth has a talented supply of military pilots stationed there, in addition to an abundance of pilots with Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. There would be no shortage of aviators willing to operator these new aircraft.
So the next time you’re in your vehicle, stuck in an awful traffic jam and thinking, “I wish my car had wings,” think about this plan from Uber instead. “Urban aviation” has a very exciting ring to it… That’s how Uber refers this new sector and touts the time-saving benefits for intercity commuters as a huge incentive for adoption of this service.
Uber Sets Its Sights Skyward: For more updates on Uber’s progress and other operational topics, frequent UAS Blog – for local information, globally.
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Niamh McNamara | - 06/21/2018
Mitch Launius
Instructor Pilot for 30 West IP
Mitch is the CEO of 30 West IP where he is also an instructor providing pilot training on international procedures. With an illustrious career of over 34 years in the cockpit, Mitch has acquired over 13,000 hours of flight time flying worldwide, with over 9,000 hours of this in Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. He is an experienced safety officer and was also an IS-BAO project manager for a fortune 500 flight department. He has presented on Safety and Operations topics at the NBAA International Operators Conference and the Canadian Business Aviation Association Convention and is currently on the NBAA International Operators Committee and serves as the North Atlantic Regional Lead. Mitch is also a member of an FAA working group on General Aviation International Authorizations and Tabletop Exercises (GIATE). He was recently selected to represent IBAC as a member of the ICAO Personal Training and Licensing Panel (PTLP) and was also recently named as a 2020 recipient of the NBAA Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award for his contribution to the business aviation community.
Henry ‘Duke’ LeDuc
Director Of Operations, Americas, UAS International Trip Support
Duke has been a dearly respected member of UAS Americas team and the UAS global family for more than five years. A safety-oriented, FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, he oversees all of the operations of the elite UAS Operations Team. With twenty-five years of experience in aviation overall with more than fifteen years of experience in international flight planning and VVIP trip coordination, he is responsible for the development of the dispatch training program and involved in the strategic development of UAS Americas. With a myriad of rich aviation experience behind him, he has extensive experience in worldwide operations with both corporate and charter environments, including seven years as Operations/Dispatch Manager in an industry-leading, Fortune 500, IS-BAO Stage III Certified corporate flight department. Duke is frequently asked shares his knowledge at major industry events and is currently serving on the NBAA’s International Operators Conference (IOC) Planning Committee.
Dudley King
President and Founder, FlightBridge
Dudley is the Founder and President of FlightBridge, which he established in 2011 and has been focused on technology solutions for the private aviation industry since 2006. Since he graduated from Dartmouth in 1988, he has worked with an array of companies listed anywhere from VentureWire to the Fortune 100. A rare blend of executive, entrepreneur, and consultant, Dudley’s executive roles have included acting CIO positions for several companies and tech advisory services to CEOs trying to rebuild their technology organizations or looking for an external, professional point of view. Highly skilled at deeply understanding his customer’s business challenges and drawing from a long and varied experience in information technology services, Dudley excels at designing technology solutions to solve their problems.
Dr. Paulo Alves
Global Medical Director, Aviation Health, Medaire
Paulo has extensive experience in medical advisory in the aviation industry. As a cardiologist, he provides technical guidance and analysis for MedAire’s MedLink medical advisory service and is MedAire’s liaison with civil aviation regulators and industry associations. Paulo worked with Varig Brazilian Airlines for 23 years, 10 of which were spent as General Medical Manager. A member of the MedAire Medical Advisory Board, Paulo is also President of the Ibero-American Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Aerospace Medicine, a member of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), and a Fellow of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. Throughout his illustrious career, Paulo has held industry leadership roles including Chairperson of the AsMA’s Air Transport Medicine Committee, President of the Airlines Medical Directors Association, President of the Brazilian Society of Aerospace Medicine and was a member of the IATA Medical Advisory Group from 2002 to 2006.
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