Eventually, an electric helicopter could be the way travelers get to and from the airport.
“For those of you who are young, there was a cartoon about ‘The Jetsons,’ which was really about the space age and about how we might be moving through our space,” Kathryn Garcia, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said. “And this feels like the first piece.”
What You Need To Know
Joby Aviation unveiled its electric helicopter a few years ago, but on Monday, it flew what will eventually be a flying electric taxi with service from Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport
The eVTOL, also known as an Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft, is 100 times quieter than a conventional helicopter, cleaner and therefore can be scaled for mass use without the disruption for residents currently in helicopter flight paths
Joby’s eVTOL is in the final federal approval stages, and the company hopes to scale up at launch to make the cost virtually the same as taking an Uber to the airport
It’s called an eVTOL, which stands for Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing. While it’s been tested around the world and unveiled in New York City a few years ago, Monday was a first — flying from John F. Kennedy International Airport to the heliports in Manhattan.
“We talked about our vision for connecting the region with quiet, emissions-free air taxis,” said JoeBen Bevirt, the founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, which is manufacturing the aircraft. “Today, that vision is no is becoming a reality.”
It’s 100 times quieter than a traditional helicopter.
‘’Our aircraft is very, very quiet,” Bonny Simi, the president of operations for Joby Aviation, said. “And so the idea is to bring this into the everyday life, into every day, use so that people can get more time back in their day.”
And quiet and clean enough to support being scaled up without nuisance to residents in its path. The electric helicopter starts with its propellers up like a traditional helicopter, but once 1,000 feet above the ground, they turn sideways like on a plane.
The point is to shorten commute times between the airport and Manhattan.
“It’ll take seven minutes. And if you were to take an Uber from 30th on the West Side to here,” Simi said. “Well, who knows. You got the Van Wyck. How long is that going to take, right?”
Joby Aviation is still in the process of getting federal approval, but that seven-minute flight could come soon.
“I think it’s in the next year or two that will end up seeing actual commercial flights and then the expansion of it,” Garcia said.
Joby Aviation hopes to scale these up upon launch, so the price of a trip to the airport on one of these helicopters will be about the same as taking a car service or an Uber.