Volkswagen Flying Tiger introduced

The car manufacturer shows a taxi for the air. Its first launch date is later this year. Volkswagen Flying Tiger introduced

The start date of the flight taxi was postponed more often than for some holiday fliers. However, VW has long been preparing for entry into a future air taxi market. The “passenger drone V.MO” should be able to automatically transport four passengers and their luggage up to 200 kilometers. It has ten rotors for vertical and horizontal movement, is electrically driven and just over eleven meters long. A prototype has just been unveiled in China. Nickname: “Flying Tiger”.

According to a representative Forsa survey from 2020, the majority of Germans fundamentally reject the use of air taxis. Only in the event of a medical emergency could a majority imagine air taxis transporting sick people.

Test flights are planned for this year and then advanced tests with an improved drone in the summer of 2023. “We want to bring this concept to series production in the long term,” says the outgoing VW China boss Stephan Wöllenstein.

Not only VW is working on the Volkswagen Flying Tiger

Long-term – a good keyword: the near breakthrough of the air taxi has been talked about for many years. So far, however, it has mostly remained with announcements. Not only VW believes in the future of the flying car:

The Munich air taxi manufacturer Lilium is aiming for the year 2025 for the first commercial approvals of its seven-seater. His model also has wings like a conventional airplane for operations between takeoff and landing. Lilium is now listed on the US tech exchange Nasdaq. Ex-Airbus boss Tom Enders heads the board of directors. Series production in Germany is planned.

Volocopter from Bruchsal in Baden announced in the spring that it would expand its locations in order to have more capacity for further tests and production. According to the company, the air taxis are to be used at the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games in Paris.

The US aircraft giant Boeing is also looking at the air taxi market. He invested $450 million in developer company Wisk Aero in January. Their small electric plane is designed to transport two people and fly autonomously. For safety, it should also be possible to remotely control it from the ground and receive a landing parachute.

The Klein Vision company’s aircar is even officially airworthy. According to the Slovakian manufacturer, it received its certificate of airworthiness from the local aviation authority at the beginning of the year. Accordingly, his flying car is approved for air traffic in Europe.

And Hyundai is having its subsidiary Supernal develop a small aircraft that will also have an electric drive and can be used as an air taxi. It takes off and lands vertically. Series production of the five-seater is scheduled to begin in the USA in 2028.

Such air taxis are unlikely to take over the spontaneous trip home from the restaurant. They are more likely to be used on fixed routes, for example along commuter routes with constant traffic jams – for example as taxis for passengers who pay a lot of money to arrive a few minutes earlier.

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