{"id":19607,"date":"2015-09-25T01:37:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T17:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-study-flying-air-taxis-could-be-as-cheap-as-an-uber-ride-and-faster\/"},"modified":"2015-09-25T01:37:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T17:37:52","slug":"nasa-study-flying-air-taxis-could-be-as-cheap-as-an-uber-ride-and-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-study-flying-air-taxis-could-be-as-cheap-as-an-uber-ride-and-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA study: Flying air taxis could be as cheap as an Uber ride, and faster"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_201194\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201194\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-201194 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-joby-620x348.jpg\" alt=\"Joby aircraft concept\" width=\"620\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-joby-620x348.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-joby-1240x697.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-joby.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-201194\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows a vertical-takeoff craft rising from an urban helipad, using a distributed electric propulsion system. (Credit: Joby Aviation via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Taking a ride on a flying air taxi could become as cheap as taking an Uber ride, and get you where you\u2019re going in&nbsp;a&nbsp;third of the time, according to a NASA concept study.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, if you\u2019re looking for your flying car, today\u2019s Uber ride-on-demand arrangement just might provide the best model for finding it, said Mark Moore, chief technologist for on-demand&nbsp;\u200emobility at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUber could provide a true door-to-door system,\u201d Moore observed during a presentation at this week\u2019s SAE AeroTech Congress and Exhibition in Seattle. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to beat that economic model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moore\u2019s&nbsp;presentation was part of a status report on \u201cflying cars\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 a science-fiction phrase&nbsp;that\u2019s frowned upon by the folks who are actually working on flying cars. (No offense, George Jetson.) The experts&nbsp;prefer terms such as roadable aircraft, hybrid air systems \u2026 or air taxis.<\/p>\n<p>Moore and his colleagues came up with a scenario for a swath of Silicon Valley, running from Oakland to San Jose, where air taxis could conceivably match an Uber benchmark of $1.50 per mile traveled and reach an average ground-speed travel rate of 63 to 122&nbsp;mph. That equates to a threefold improvement in rush-hour travel speed.<\/p>\n<p>But NASA\u2019s scenario comes with a few big \u201cifs.\u201d You knew there\u2019d be some ifs, right?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The study assumes the development of a new kind of vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, powered by electricity-driven propellers. Distributed electric propulsion, or DEP, is the focus of NASA\u2019s LEAPTech initiative&nbsp;as well as an assortment of commercial ventures.<\/li>\n<li>To provide enough range, the aircraft would have to use next-generation batteries with at least twice the energy density that\u2019s currently commercially available&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;around 400 watt-hours per kilogram.<\/li>\n<li>There\u2019d have to be an infrastructure to support all those Uber Air flights. The NASA study suggests putting helipads on the roofs of more urban&nbsp;buildings, in the middle of highway cloverleafs, or even on floating barges. Researchers estimate that there\u2019s room for&nbsp;at least&nbsp;200 cloverleaf pads in the Silicon Valley region they targeted.<\/li>\n<li>The Federal Aviation Administration would have to sign off on the regulations for all those added flights. NASA\u2019s study determined&nbsp;that the helipads could be built to fit the FAA\u2019s clearance restrictions.<\/li>\n<li>To reduce costs, the model calls for an aircraft capable of carrying a pilot and one passenger. NASA says that should cover more than&nbsp;70 percent of the trips currently conducted&nbsp;by Uber.<\/li>\n<li>The Uber-style model is key to making the economics work: NASA\u2019s study assumes that each air taxi would be in the air 1,500 hours a year, or roughly 30 hours a week. \u201cUtilization is king,\u201d Moore said.<\/li>\n<li>Moore said the noise factor is the \u201cmost severe constraint\u201d for community air taxis. If those next-generation aircraft are as loud as present-day airplanes or helicopters, the idea won\u2019t fly. Literally. However, NASA says the motors for a DEP-powered craft could be arranged to create acoustic interference, resulting in a putt-putt that\u2019s not as&nbsp;off-putting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NASA is planning to build an experimental airplane in the next couple of years to demonstrate DEP technology, but commercializing the concept will be left to private ventures such as Joby Aviation, ESAero, Zee Aero, E-Copter and&nbsp;e-volo.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RwtySwWHu8Q<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the economic model for air taxi services, Moore said British Columbia\u2019s&nbsp;Helijet is blazing a trail with its Vancouver-to-Victoria service \u2014 and he said next-generation air taxis \u201cwould make a lot of sense\u201d for the increasingly congested Seattle region as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth areas have severe geographic\/water ground constraints that are easily circumvented with aerial solutions,\u201d Moore told GeekWire in a follow-up&nbsp;email.<\/p>\n<p>So what about owning your own flying car? The NASA study suggests that personal air vehicles wouldn\u2019t pay for themselves in terms of energy or time savings, even assuming that next-generation technologies take hold.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, government agencies and high-end customers would probably&nbsp;still&nbsp;be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the roadable aircraft that are being developed by companies such as Terrafugia, Moller&nbsp;International&nbsp;and AeroMobil. The economic factors could be outweighed by the benefits for specialized applications&nbsp;\u2014 such as border monitoring&nbsp;\u2014 or by the thrill of flight and the prestige of ownership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat people are willing to buy at times doesn\u2019t always reflect what makes the most economic sense,\u201d said Carl Dietrich, Terrafugia\u2019s CEO and CTO.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Terrafugia TF-X\u2122\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wHJTZ7k0BXU?start=3&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Correction for 12:05 p.m. PT Sept. 25:<\/strong> The NASA study found that the&nbsp;combined air and ground speed for a hybrid air taxi system provides a 3.0 to 3.6 time improvement over the current ground speed in Silicon Valley, which is 21 to 34 mph during peak times. The figures were misstated in an earlier version of this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows a vertical-takeoff craft rising from an urban helipad, using a distributed electric propulsion system. (Credit: Joby Aviation via YouTube) Taking a ride on a flying air taxi could become as cheap as taking an Uber ride, and get you where you\u2019re going in&nbsp;a&nbsp;third of the time, according to a NASA concept [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[564,190,5621,21,5622,5623],"class_list":["post-19607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aviation","tag-nasa","tag-sae-aerotech","tag-space","tag-taxis","tag-uber"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}