Page 16 - ATC Special Bulletin Series - Future Skies 2024
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| SPECIAL BULLETIN SERIES | 2024 |
BY MICHAEL MÜLLER, Editor in the DLR Corporate Communications Department
VERTICAL TAKE-OFFS ON
THE CITY’S SKYLINE HOW AN URBAN AIR TAXI SYSTEM MIGHT WORK
Martina Meyer has just landed at Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport. She has to go directly to the city centre. She glances at the clock. It takes just under half an hour to travel the 10 kilometres to the Congress Center by metro or city train. It would take slightly longer by taxi or in a rental car, but only if she can get through easily – doubtful given the current rush hour traffic. But there is a practical alternative – an air taxi ...
Admittedly, this scenario is a vision of the future, but it could well become a reality in the second half of this decade. Under the leadership of the Institute of Flight Guidance, part of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), ten DLR research institutes have been investigating how such a system might be implemented. The now completed project, in which DLR collaborated with NASA and Bauhaus Luftfahrt, was named HorizonUAM (Urban Air Mobility).
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