{"id":12937,"date":"2025-10-20T21:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/12937\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:20:07","slug":"florida-offers-test-site-for-flying-cabs-in-polk-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/12937\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida offers test site for flying cabs in Polk County"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue hope to land the next generation of air transport companies at a testing facility in Central Florida.<\/p>\n

Perdue for years has championed advanced air mobility, which would involve establishing \u201cvertiports\u201d in urban areas that could serve as hubs for short aerial commutes by battery-powered aircraft that have characteristics of airplanes and helicopters.<\/p>\n

DeSantis recently saying he was \u201cmildly excited\u201d about the effort to reduce congestion along the I-4 corridor, Florida will first try to attract the growing technology to Polk County.<\/p>\n

While few details were released, DeSantis and Perdue on Thursday announced plans for an aerial test bed at the department\u2019s SunTrax facility in Polk County.<\/p>\n

The test facility will include two vertiports, which are take-off and landing sites for primarily electric vertical take-off and landing, \u201cVTOL,\u201d aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea would be, if they could do this to scale, if they can make it economical, it would take some traffic off the roads, because people, they could cycle through with travelers on doing that. So we\u2019re just trying to have as many options as possible,\u201d DeSantis said during an announcement that was focused on new express lanes on I-4 in Hillsborough County and a truck parking facility along I-4 in Polk County.<\/p>\n

Once green-lighted from the federal government, the VTOLs would be expected to provide short air transport \u201clike an Uber\u201d and potentially draw investments from deep-pocketed \u201cWall Street guys,\u201d according to the governor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to go from Miami to Jacksonville or Miami to Pensacola,\u201d DeSantis said \u201cIt\u2019s really within that 60 miles. And in areas where there is traffic, where you want to get from maybe one urban center to the next, it makes a lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The test facility will help the private sector quickly advance into the \u201cage of flying cars\u201d in Florida, Perdue added.<\/p>\n

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which runs Orlando International Airport, also is looking into developing and operating a vertiport at the airport.<\/a><\/p>\n

Perdue and DeSantis saw prototypes of the VTOLs in June at the Paris Air Show, an international aerospace trade fair and air show. Perdue said that some of the prototypes are expected to get federal approval in 2026 for supervised trials.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can we support the private sector being successful? Speed to market,\u201d Perdue said. \u201cYou cut through the red tape. You give them the ability to start operating and operating quickly and become profitable. And this will be a new opportunity for Florida residents. So this is our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perdue earlier this year encouraged lawmakers to support the establishment of vertiports in urban areas that could serve as hubs for short aerial commutes by battery-powered aircraft that have characteristics of airplanes and helicopters.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, you can think about movies that you\u2019ve seen that are science fiction. The Jetsons, yeah, is one of those \u2026 that\u2019s a classic. This is actually becoming a reality,\u201d Perdue told members of the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee in February.<\/p>\n

The Paris Air Show elevated DeSantis\u2019 support in the high-tech transport from \u201cmildly interested\u201d to \u201cmildly excited,\u201d the governor said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I do have questions too. But I think what we\u2019re doing makes a lot of sense, because, to the extent the industry has the ability to innovate, they\u2019re going to want to do that in conjunction with SunTrax,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

While attending the air show, DeSantis signed a wide-ranging transportation package (SB 1662) that in part required the transportation department to develop a plan for advanced air mobility with the Department of Commerce. The law also required advances in aviation technology to be included into the annual transportation work program.<\/p>\n

The joint department plan also is aimed at identifying \u201ccorridors of need and opportunities for industry growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, the Federal Aviation Administration launched a pilot program to advance the approval of air taxis that will involve at least five public-private partnerships with state and local governments to promote safe usage of VTOL aircraft.<\/p>\n

Facing industry pressure, the FAA in January updated guidelines for the design of vertiport facilities, in part putting them in the existing category of heliports. A year ago, the FAA issued a final rule for qualifications and training of advanced air mobility instructors and pilots.<\/p>\n

Attempts to establish regulations and oversight of the industry have struggled to gain traction in the Florida Legislature over the past few years. Lawmakers in 2024 allowed the state Department of Commerce to consider applications for money under a new Supply Chain Innovation Grant Program for efforts to develop vertiports.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 20, 2025 at 12:50 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue hope to land the next generation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,114,266,115,99,109,1798],"class_list":{"0":"post-12937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}