Flying cars are set for take-off in in Europe soon, and we’ll all be watching closely as Australia shouldn’t be far behind, with regional airline Rex hoping to begin testing these machines by 2024. And they’re not flying cars, but electric aircraft.
At this year’s Farnborough Air Show, a host of organisations including Virgin Atlantic, Atkins and Vertical Aerospace unveiled the Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium (AMEC), which will spend a $16 million grant from the government to set up a trial of electric aircraft between Heathrow, London City Airport and Bristol beginning in 2024. “We’re hoping to prep the industry for as close to commercial operations as we can,” said James Richmond, head of advanced air mobility at Atkins, the company overseeing the trial.
The trial will see two test flights in 2024: one between Bristol Airport and an unnamed rural airfield, and a second between the company’s own hub north of London and Heathrow Airport.
The media coverage crowed that these will be the first flying car trials in the UK: “Farnborough could be hailed as the start of the sky taxi,” claimed – and no wonder, as headlines with “flying car” are certainly more eye catching than “electric plane”
