One of the world’s age long fantasy is about to come to reality, a personal flying car. Yes, a flying car. While many companies have made a commendable stride in this direction, Airbus is about to up the ante.
Airbus Group is planning to test a flying car as a way to escape traffic jams on the ground, company CEO Tom Enders told the audience at the DLD digital technology conference in Munich.
The company created a division called Urban Air Mobility to develop ideas like a vehicle that transports individuals, or a helicopter type vehicle that could ferry multiple passengers around.
“One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Enders told the audience, adding that he hopes his company will let a demo vehicle designed for single-person transport loose on the skies before 2017 is through.
“We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously,” he said. Any technology Airbus developed would have to be clean, he pointed out, as the whole idea of flying vehicles is to help clean up congested cities.
Flying cars could cut down on costs for city infrastructure planners as well, since there’s no need to spend billion on concrete bridges and roads — Where we’re going, we won’t need roads.
