German startup offers air taxi experience

A company in Germany is now accepting reservations for taxi rides with a twist – taxi rides via air.

Volocopter, who are a startup that were established in 2011, are offering tickets for their ‘VoloFirst’ experience. During this experience, customers will hop aboard the VoloCity aircraft which can carry a maximum of two passengers with hand luggage at a maximum speed of just below 70mph (112kmh). The main body of the aircraft is supported by 18 rotors.

The flights will last approximately 15 minutes, with both a video of the flight and a personalised certificate being offered to the passengers upon the conclusion of the experience.

However, according to an article on Futurism, this ride will not be cheap as tickets are being released at a price of €300 (around $350). Plus, this experience won’t be available just yet.

“While the final certification for air taxis is still pending, we do have a detailed realistic timeline to launch commercial VoloCity flights in the next 2-3 years,” said Christian Bauer, COO of Volocopter.

It will be a while until we are accustomed to seeing taxi rides in the air, though Volocopter are already making progress towards achieving this goal. In 2019, one of its aircraft made its debut in Stuttgart, Germany in which it took a flight over the city during a presentation.

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