Jetpacks, flying cars and taxi drones: transport’s future is in the skies

SYDNEY — Paramedics with jetpacks, border police in flying cars and,��city workers commuting by drone all sound like science fiction — but the concepts are part of an advanced air mobility (AAM) market that is expected to be worth as much as $17 billion by 2025.����

As urbanization leaves city streets congested and advances in technology allow for vehicles considered impossible just decades ago, using the sky for small-scale aircraft has become increasingly attractive.����

“We can’t continue to use road transport; 3D mobility is really important,” Anna��Kominik, Asia Pacific Director at Wisk, said in an interview broadcast on Thursday at the Reuters Next conference.����

Wisk, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Kitty Hawk Corp., has been testing Cora, an autonomous electric aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter, at its base in Tekapo, New Zealand, for four years.����

Wisk is liaising with regulators, including the US Federal Aviation Administration, to get approval for public use of the air taxi, which can carry two passengers about 40��kilometers��plus reserves (25 miles) at speeds of about 160 km/h.����

“Sixty-seven percent of the world’s population will be cities by 2030, so that ground infrastructure can’t keep up and is costly to overhaul,” Ms.��Kominik��said in a panel discussion recorded on Nov. 5. “We have to move to the sky as a resource.”����

Netherlands-based PAL-V is keeping one foot on the ground while taking to the air. Its two-seat gyroplane road vehicle Liberty, which has a maximum speed of 180 km/h and a flying range of 400 km, received approval for use on European roads this year.����

Delivery to customers will begin in 2023 after they complete the required training, said Robert��Dingemanse, chief executive of PAL-V International.����

He added that PAL-V had orders, including down payments, from 15 countries, with interest from 193 countries.����

Ms.��Kominik��declined to put a timetable on when Cora would carry its first passengers.����

“We don’t expect we will be the first to market; we do expect to be the best,” she said.����

DEVELOPING AN ECOSYSTEM����

The advanced air mobility market could be worth almost $17 billion by 2025 and $110 billion by 2035, according to Allied Market Research.����

The same report suggests the piloted segment will hold more than three-quarters of the market share in 2025, but the autonomous segment will grow fastest between 2025 and 2035.����

Mr.��Dingemanse��said he expected the Liberty to be used for a range of applications, including pipeline observation, policing and health operations in remote areas.����

Similarly, Richard Browning has already done trial runs of his Gravity jetpack with militaries in several countries and emergency response personnel in the United Kingdom.����

With 317 pounds of thrust, the��jetsuit��can carry a person for about four minutes. The company is working on updates to extend flying time, and Mr. Browning has built up a dataset of the jetpack’s use across 35 countries.����

Ms.��Kominik��said the creation of an “ecosystem” of use cases was critical as the industry and technology develops.����

“That requires a very different mindset from government policy, regulators and community,” she said. “We have to create that, because it’s not there at the moment.����

California-based Wisk selected New Zealand because it was unique globally in allowing “beyond line of sight” trials of autonomous aircraft.����

CORONAVIRUS IMPACTS����

Mr.��Dingemanse��and Ms.��Kominik��said the pandemic had helped and hurt the industry.����

Sales of the PAL-V slowed as in-person test drives became restricted, Mr.��Dingemanse��said, but the crisis has provided a boost to the private jet industry and reinforced the human need to meet face-to-face.����

“In that sense, it is an advantage to our solution, which is personal space when you’re traveling,” he said.����

Ms. Koinik said New Zealand’s tight border restrictions had prevented some key personnel from entering over the past several months, but also spurred the opening of a new testing site in Australia.����

Mr. Browning is keen to return to public demonstrations to inspire a new generation: “Landing a 1,000 horsepower��jetsuit��amongst a school — with an invitation of course — is a pretty good way to stop kids from looking at an iPad for a moment.” —��Jane Wardell/Reuters