Driverless public transport and flying taxis are the future of travelling. And it seems, the latter might happen super soon, since countries across the globe are testing air taxis. Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also jumped onto the bandwagon of countries that’ve successfully tested their air taxis, and we are here to tell you all about it. This testing was conducted by NEOM Company.
NEOM Successfully Tests Air Taxi
🤝 NEOM & Volocopter
🚁 Celebrating the first ever #eVTOL aircraft test flight in Saudi Arabia and marking a milestone in the creation of our innovative transportation system in #NEOM💡@Volocopter @KSAGACA pic.twitter.com/H6Uwps6wxV— NEOM (@NEOM) June 21, 2023
NEOM Company took to its Twitter account on Wednesday, June 21 to announce that it has successfully tested the Volocopter aircraft, which is the first eVTOL flight in Saudi Arabia. With this successful test, the country moves another step towards the adoption of eVTOL operations in NEOM. According to a report by Saudi Gazette, this is the first time an eVTOL, which stands for Electronic Vertical Takeoff & Landing aircraft has received special flight authorisation in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it should also be mentioned that this flight test campaign happened over a week! Yes, the aircraft was built after 18 months of collaboration between the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Volocopter, and NEOM.
Also Read: Flying Taxis To Space Tourism: 7 Things That Show The Future Of Travel Is Nearly Here!
A First-Of-Its-Kind Testing In Saudi Arabia
NEOM and #Volocopter have successfully completed a series of air taxi test flights, marking the first eVTOL flight in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 💫
Learn more: https://t.co/ZZg7DSGvFG#NEOM @Volocopter pic.twitter.com/PtJJkTEMfk
— NEOM (@NEOM) June 21, 2023
As it’s evident, this is an important milestone in the aviation sector of the kingdom. It will revolutionise mobility by transforming the lives of people. It’s worth mentioning that the test campaign laid emphasis on the flight performance of the aircraft in local climate and environmental conditions, along with its integration into the UTM (read Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management).
Previously, Dubai made headlines for its mission of launching air taxis as early as 2026! Coming back to the Volocopter, this eVTOL is the key to NEOM’s smart and sustainable multi-model mobility system. We say this because it will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. This energy will be generated by solar and wind energy sources!
With this news, we can certainly hope that air taxis might soon become a reality, and people may get to travel short distances by air.
Cover Image Courtesy: Twitter/NEOM