They wanted to take advantage of the Olympics to showcase an innovative mode of transport in the skies of Paris, but those promoting the electric “flying taxis” have been forced to back down due to a lack of certification.
Airport management group ADP and German aeronautics start-up Volocopter now aim to fly a flight “between now and the end of the year” from a floating platform on the Seine, they told AFP today, four days before the end of the Games.
The two companies now plan to hold flight demonstrations of a prototype aerial vehicle, without a passenger, today and Sunday at Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole airport in the Paris region, a few hundred meters from the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. , where horse races are held.
The certification of Volocity, the aerial vehicle designed and built by Volocopter that will fly at a height of more than 50 meters, has been “postponed for a few weeks” for reasons related to its engines, explained Edward Arkwright, the group’s chief executive. ADP, which manages the airports in the Paris region, including Paris-Charles-de-Gaulles and Orly, as well as Saint-Cyr.
Air taxi: Volocopter allowed to fly during Olympic Games in Paris #Traffic
— heise online (@heiseonline) August 7, 2024
Initially ADP and Volocopter, with the support of the Ile-de-France region, wanted to conduct test flights from a configured platform moored to a dock on the Seine in eastern Paris to take advantage of the global exposure of the Olympics.
The aim is to demonstrate that a new mode of transport is possible in densely populated urban areas, by circulating these vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerial vehicles between various points where appropriate platforms, called ‘vertiports’, will be placed.
Among them is the Saint-Cyr facility, which is set to open today and will include a passenger baggage screening station, an air vehicle charging station and an air vehicle parking area, Arkwright said.
Volocopter failed to receive a certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA, AESA) in time.
Read also:
“Miltos was here”: The shirt worn by the entire family of the gold medalist in Paris (Photos)
Olympic Games: Shock injury for Lamecha Girma in the 3,000 m – He tripped and lost consciousness (Video)
Tedoglou and Karalis play with Olympic medals – “If you put them together, they give you a superpower?” (Photos)
#Olympics #flying #taxis #certified #Video
