The 2024 Olympic Games will be the field of experimentation. In addition to the passage of the Olympic bill, sparking fears of algorithmic surveillance, proponents still hope to set up tests for electric flying taxis called Velocity.
A desired experiment during the Olympics
Following these experiments during the Olympic Games, the promoters want electric flying taxis to be certified in the fall of 2024 by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to transport paying passengers. Without this authorization, the Velocity can still fly but with the only pilot on board. One observer, who does not pay for transportation, is permitted.
Groupe ADP, a French public company which manages airport platforms, and the Île-de-France region are joining forces with Volocopter, a German company to which we owe Volocity. The Paris Olympic Games represent the ideal event to show what the aircraft which circulates between “vertiports”, designed as a new mode of transport. Jean-Christophe Drai, head of Volocopter in France, specifies that the impossibility of authorization before the Olympic Games is understandable: “It’s an aeronautical program, so we know it’s complex”. But the company is keeping its sights set on its objective of certification by the European authorities for next fall.
Edward Arkwright, executive general manager of Groupe ADP, explains to theAFP during the VivaTech show that five “vertiports” were developed including four “are already in operation”. They are located at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Le Bourget airports, at the Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport and at the Saint-Cyr-l’École aerodrome. As for the fifth, placed on a barge on the Seine towards Austerlitz in Paris, it is awaiting authorization from the Ministry of Transport. Edward Arkwright specifies that it is “ready, docked, positioned”.
Municipal elected officials disapprove of the Velocity
In Paris, the project does not pass since several municipal elected officials, from the majority or the opposition, do not approve of the circulation of electric flying taxis in the sky of the capital. Among the arguments put forward, according to them, it is an elitist mode of transport. Groupe ADP and its partners believe that Volocity is useful in the event of emergency transport of patients or grafts.
The Volocity is an electric flying taxi with two seats, one of which is for the pilot. The 18 rotors in a crown above the cockpit are powered by batteries.