Your Ride in the Sky

No more the stuff of sci-fi blockbusters, flying taxis are set to take off in the next two years to permanently disrupt the global aviation scene

- MANISH PANT

IMAGINE YOU ARE asked to travel for an emergency meeting during rush hour from Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai to an SEZ in Airoli (Navi Mumbai). Or there is a medical emergency at your home in West Delhi while you are out for work in Gurugram. In both situations, since the commute can take up to two hours in rush hour traffic, you can consider a helicopter ride to cut down on travel time. But, a chopper requires regulatory permissions and can be prohibitively expensive. Soon, you will have another option that is equally efficient and more economical—the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).

The US-based Vertical Flight Society, which has been working towards advancing vertical flight technologies since 1943, has identified more than 700 eVTOL designs from nearly 350 companies and innovators worldwide. Companies such as Airbus, Boeing, Eve Air Mobility (a subsidiary of Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer), Toyota, and electric aerospace firm BETA Technologies are working on advanced prototypes to obtain certification from regulators such as the European Union Aviation Safety Association or the Federal Aviation Administration to launch them commercially.

After putting in place an enabling ecosystem for the local drone industry, India too is looking at becoming a hub of eVTOL manufacturing. “The concept of flying cars that we saw in [movies such as] Blade Runner and