Tech
Uber hopes to develop affordable flying cars by 2026
Uber, the massively successful app based around the convenience of summoning a car to take you home from a bar at last call, is ready to embark on a new frontier: flight.
In a white paper published today, Uber says the next stage of transport is a network of app-summoned vertical-takeoff (VTOL) aircraft for elite commuters.
Last month, Uber revealed it was looking into VTOL technologies, to take advantage of that great uncrowded highway above every city: the sky. Now they’ve got a more detailed pitch.
It is a known fact that while technologies, materials, companies, and ambitions have all changed in the ensuing 90 years of flying car speculation, the challenge of building a vehicle that works on both streets and in the air remains hard.
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The history of VTOL aircraft is filled with failure after failure after expensive failure, and only a few success stories.
The V-22 Osprey, a military aircraft used to carry Air Force special operations forces and Marines into hard-to-reach places, was not an easy plane to design.
It took the better part of two decades, with full military budgets and need behind it, to get the Osprey working reliably, instead of crashing and killing its occupants. It cost about $54 billion to develop the aircraft, and each one costs $70 million.
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