{"id":514449,"date":"2026-03-10T06:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514449\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T06:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T06:02:19","slug":"flying-cars-will-take-off-in-american-skies-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514449\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Flying Cars\u2019 Will Take Off in American Skies This Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

New kinds of aircraft, sorts of \u201cflying cars<\/a>\u201d that can take off and land with little space like helicopters but function like airplanes, will start operating in US airspace as early as June, the US Department of Transportation announced on Monday.<\/p>\n

Eight regions across the US, including New York and New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will take part in a three-year pilot program that will see new aircraft designs ferrying people and cargo around the country even before they formally receive full certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n

The companies building the tech say their aircraft are quieter, cheaper, and release fewer emissions than helicopters or airplanes. Some promise totally autonomous trips. Many involved in the project, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs<\/a>, and ultra-short takeoff aircraft, require way less space to operate, landing and taking off outside of traditional airports and closer to where people live and work. The companies outline futures in which regular people can zip between neighboring cities in a matter of minutes, sailing above traffic and reordering the economy as they go.<\/p>\n

\"Electra<\/p>\n

Electra\u2019s nine-passenger EL9 Ultra Short.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Electra<\/p>\n

On an earnings call with investors earlier this month, Adam Goldstein, the CEO and founder of Archer Aviation<\/a>, one of the firms involved, called the federal pilot program \u201cour Waymo moment,\u201d a science fiction project turned real life. \u201cNow the goal is to have half a million people in the biggest cities in the country start to see these aircraft as part of your everyday commute, just like they started to see Waymos every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Archer\u2019s electric air taxi, called Midnight, is built to carry up to four passengers on 60- to 90-minute trips. The company will take part in pilot projects in Texas, Florida, and New York. Goldstein told investors that Midnight would complete another important step toward certification \u201cin the coming quarters.\u201d The company has received funding from automaker Stellantis and United Airlines.<\/p>\n

Other companies involved in the pilot projects include the small electric plane manufacturer Beta Technologies<\/a>, Toyota- and Jet Blue-funded air taxi maker Joby Aviation<\/a>, and Electra<\/a>, which is building a hybrid electric ultra-short aircraft. All four of those firms have completed test flights in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we love about the pilot is the chance to demonstrate that this is not fantasy,\u201d Electra CEO Marc Allen tells WIRED. \u201cIt’s not science fiction. It’s in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New kinds of aircraft, sorts of \u201cflying cars\u201d that can take off and land with little space like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[19619,4324,22611,28,199138,6145],"class_list":["post-514449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air-travel","tag-airlines","tag-aviation","tag-business","tag-flying-cars","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}