There’s no need to look up to find them. “Flying taxis” won’t be making their media splash during the Olympics. Promoters of these electric vehicles had to give up promoting this innovative mode of transport during the Olympics due to a lack of certification.
Airport manager Groupe ADP and German aeronautics start-up Volocopter are now aiming for a flight “by the end of the year” from a platform floating on the Seine, they announced on Thursday, four days before the end of the Games.
Flying demonstrations near Versailles
The two companies nevertheless plan to organize flight demonstrations with a prototype, without passengers, on Thursday and Sunday at the Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole aerodrome (Yvelines), a few hundred meters from the park of the Château de Versailles, the site of the equestrian events. The certification of the Volocity, the machine designed and manufactured by Volocopter, suffered a “delay of a few weeks” linked to its engines, explained Edward Arkwright, the executive general manager of Groupe ADP, which manages airports and aerodromes in the Paris region, including Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly, but also Saint-Cyr.
Initially, ADP and Volocopter, supported by the Ile-de-France region, wanted to carry out experimental flights from a converted platform, moored at a quay at Austerlitz, in the east of the capital, capitalizing on the global attention paid to the Olympic Games. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of a new mode of transport in a dense urban area, by circulating these vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft between several “vertiports”.
Engines will “not arrive on time”
The project, which has been discussed since late 2020, had already seen its ambitions revised downward in recent months, as Volocopter did not obtain certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in time to accommodate paying passengers. The company’s CEO, Dirk Hoke, attributed this new delay to “an American subcontractor who was not able to deliver what he had promised.”
The engines that were to equip the machine planned for Austerlitz had to be sent back to the United States for inspection. “They will be back next week, but not in time to make the flights from the barge” before the end of the Games. “We are a little disappointed, but in any case we had said that we would not make any compromises with security,” added Edward Arkwright.
Silence, we’re flying
In its current version, the two-seater aircraft, including the pilot’s seat, is equipped with batteries powering 18 rotors arranged in a crown above the cockpit, and is much quieter than a helicopter according to its manufacturer. The Ministry of Transport and ADP have preferred in recent months to emphasize the usefulness of these machines – in future larger versions – for carrying out medical evacuations or organ transport, rather than talking about “flying taxis” associated with a mode of travel for the richest.
In fact, this project has met with hostility from Paris municipal officials, both from the majority and the opposition. The city hall, speaking of an “ecological aberration”, had even challenged in court the decree published on July 9 by the Ministry of Transport and authorizing the creation of the Austerlitz “heliport”.