Urban air mobility

Federal regulators have given a strong push to electric-powered air taxis by issuing a final rule for operating the aircraft and how pilots will be trained to fly them.

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, said the rule recognizes air taxis as an entirely new type of aircraft that will soon join airplanes and helicopters in the sky.

“We have a tangible plan, with 10 aircraft, and we hope that once the licensing procedures, which are already being finalised at the European level, are finalised, we will put the plan into action.”

As urban traffic gets more miserable, entrepreneurs are looking to a future in which commuters hop into "air taxis" that whisk them over clogged roads.    

Companies such as Archer, Joby and Wisk are working on electric-powered aircraft that take off and land vertically like helicopters then propel forward like planes.