Urban Air-Taxi Pilot Training Outlined in US FAA Proposal 34
US aviation regulators on Wednesday unveiled their first framework for how to train pilots for the expected new breed of electric-powered urban air taxis designed to revolutionize short-hop travel in cities. From a report: The Federal Aviation Administration published a proposed set of regulations that attempt to create an orderly process for building a pipeline of pilots on the devices, which don't currently fit into existing regulations. It would allow flight crews trained on existing aircraft to take credit for that experience as they transition to the new devices known as electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVOTLs, the FAA said in a statement. It also creates a pathway for pilots to receive FAA sign-off for specific new aircraft and attempts to merge the new technology into existing rules as much as possible, the agency said.
"These proposed rules of the sky will safely usher in this new era of aviation and provide the certainty the industry needs to develop," David Boulter, FAA's acting associate administrator for aviation safety, said in the release. The proposal is a key step in allowing the new aircraft -- which take off vertically like helicopters, but can fly with the efficiency of fixed-wing planes -- to be introduced into the US aviation system. The agency has estimated that it will approve a handful of the devices as early as 2025.
"These proposed rules of the sky will safely usher in this new era of aviation and provide the certainty the industry needs to develop," David Boulter, FAA's acting associate administrator for aviation safety, said in the release. The proposal is a key step in allowing the new aircraft -- which take off vertically like helicopters, but can fly with the efficiency of fixed-wing planes -- to be introduced into the US aviation system. The agency has estimated that it will approve a handful of the devices as early as 2025.
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Noise (Score:4, Insightful)
The noise pollution in cities will be spectacular is this air taxi thing catches on.
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"Air taxi" is the same thing as "flying car." They've existed for decades. They're expensive toys for rich people, always have, and always will be.
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Re:Noise (Score:5, Informative)
Also note, this is specifically ELECTRIC, vertical take off vertically, not the 1960's Bond type gas flying cars. Also note this specifically mentions pilots, not autonomous vehicles, or remote piloted drones with passengers.
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Yeah, once you take on passengers, it's even more expensive.
Expensive toys for rich people.
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https://transportgeography.org... [transportgeography.org]
This is one statistic millenials never bring up when they're complaining about how much worse they have it compared to previous generations. Now everybody flies.
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It hasn't for the last hundred years. Given that it will be at least as expensive (and probably more so) as air taxis that have been operating for decades, there's no reason to believe that will change.
Expensive toys for rich people.
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Do I think individualized short-haul "taxi" air travel is on the verge of becoming commonplace or affordable, no. But might this iteration lower that (high) cost by, say, 30%? It might.
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"Air taxi" is the same thing as "flying car." They've existed for decades. They're expensive toys for rich people, always have, and always will be.
Do you really not understand the concept of a taxi service? How people pay for them today? And will tomorrow?
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Absolutely true. A 1950s edition of Popular Mechanics even featured an artist's impression of a flying car that Hiller were working on at the time.
The reality is that this is all an illusion created by the same types of hair-brained dreamers as were behind the Martin Jetpack -- a similarly ridiculous concept that crashed and burned (albeit figuratively and not literally, thank goodness).
We've had VTOL small-scale passenger transport for decades.. in the form of helicopters. Simply building a craft with lo
Horrible idea (Score:2, Insightful)
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Is this a chatgpt bot I'm responding too?
Re: Horrible idea (Score:2)
"Revolutionize short hop in cites"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Really? When so many people take Uber and Lyft, because they don't want to pay cab fares, they're going to take air taxies, with multiple times the cost?
The only "revolutionize" will be among per diem and execs.
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Really? When so many people take Uber and Lyft, because they don't want to pay cab fares, they're going to take air taxies, with multiple times the cost?
Don't be so shortsighted. Social media corrupted the internet service price tag so much that Free is the standard price tag now for many online services, in exchange for selling you as the actual product.
In a world full of 23 and Me's, tell me....do you think the average "customer" perpetually offended by the audacity of being charged for certain goods and services, wouldn't give up a DNA swab in exchange for a free or highly subsidized cab ride? Hell, they'd give up a pint of blood for a 3-day pass on Va
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Social media corrupted the internet service price tag so much that Free is the standard price tag now for many online services, in exchange for selling you as the actual product.
Not the public's choice. Sure they don't want to pay, but the whole mass privacy rape thing was entirely chosen by the advertisers and the major sites who saw it as a way to make a fast buck without legal hurdles. Thanks to new fangled technology syndrome. Today, it's practically impossible to run any major site without the advertisers getting their share of the data. Further, too much of everyday life and the expectations of society have changed to allow major sites to cut off the advertisers funding. The
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...A pint of blood takes too long to get out of someone without killing them. (Just go ask all of the donation banks how many turn away free money when they find out how long they'll have to sit and wait.) Especially if all you're offering is a 3 day pass. The human body can't sustain such a regular loss, and a good portion of one of those 3 days is going to be spent waiting for blood extraction each cycle. (Of which no employer is going to give the time off for.)...Granted, I believe that this will be sustained by some other stupid model that extracts from the public far more than it provides in return.
All of this speaks to a spoiled and government sponsored world we live in at the moment.
Give it a minute and let the reality of the pending Depression kick in, and we'll see what humans will suddenly have all the time in the world for. Bread lines buried in history tend to imply humans were standing around for hours not merely because it was convenient or fashionably worth their time, but because they needed to in order to survive.
Let them die in traffic (Score:2)
With the rest of us.
Skip the pilots (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think that word means... (Score:2)
can fly with the efficiency of fixed-wing planes
But they can't. I don't think the author knows what 'efficiency' means.
Standard fixed-wing planes need one motor to propel them at this scale, and as the power is reduced they glide without any additional power input. These 'air taxis' require at least 3 additional motors and if any of them stop running the attitude or altitude of the vehicle will fall rapidly. Even the models with rotating props and stub wings to assist with lift in forward flight are not proper glide-capable aircraft.