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Up, up, and away! Hyundai plans world's smallest airport for eVTOLs (aka flying cars)
Capitalizing on the coming age of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles and society's obession with all things of a diminutive nature (we see you Grogu!), South Korea's largest automobile manufacturer is banking on the future with their recently-revealed plans to build the "world's smallest airport" for eVTOLs in Coventry, England.
The idea for this next generation transportation hub springs from Hyundai Motor Group, Coventry City Council, and the U.K. Government, who have all partnered with Urban Air Port to launch the world’s first eVTOL hub to demonstrate the promise and full potential of urban air mobility for the U.K. and worldwide.
NASA has optimistically projected that urban-air mobility in our country alone could generate close to $500 billion in the near-future, but the biggest obstacle to overcome is the obvious lack of any infrastructure, a situation that Urban Air Port hopes to immediately address.
"Cars need roads. Trains need rails. Planes need airports. eVTOLs will need Urban Air Ports," Urban Air Port Founder and Executive Chairman Ricky Sandhu states in an official press release. "Over a hundred years ago, the world’s first commercial flight took off, creating the modern connected world. Urban Air Port will improve connectivity across our cities, boost productivity and help the U.K. to take the lead in a whole new clean global economy. Flying cars used to be a futuristic flight of fancy. Air-One will bring clean urban air transport to the masses and unleash a new airborne world of zero emission mobility."
The firm eventually intends on installing over 200 zero emission sites worldwide over the next five years as global demand grows. Their proposed Air-One facility is scheduled to be launched in Coventry in late 2021 on a strip of land adjacent to the region's Ricoh sports stadium.
The Urban Air Mobility Division of Hyundai Motor Group has partnered with Urban Air Port for its infrastructure mission to help support the limitless growth of this transporation sector in metropolitan areas. With large scale plans to build their own proprietary eVTOL vehicles which will operate in the larger global ecosystem, Hyundai is throwing their considerable funding, experience, and influence into the marketplace as a segment of its broader plan to commercialize its own aircraft by the year 2028.
"We are already a city that is helping to shape the future of electric transport and this is yet another ground breaking project that puts Coventry at the forefront of new technologies," adds Coventry City Council Cabinet Member Jim O'Boyle. "It highlights how the council is working alongside a range of organisations to help shape a better, greener future."
