Flying cars are almost as old as the car itself—the dream that is, not actual flying cars. Those don’t exist. Sure, there have been the odd designs that have flown with varying degrees of success but most have required lengthy runways to operate from or were basically light aircraft with foldable wings and the kind of practicality and road manners that that sort of layout suggests.
Those of us looking for a Back To The Future style hover conversion have been sorely disappointed, but perhaps a change is on the horizon. Not necessarily by a start-up armed with high hopes and good intentions but by two giants of their respective industries.
Porsche and Boeing have just announced their future collaboration in this field by signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace. It may sound a bit vague and non-committal but Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing at Porsche brings us back to earth with a more realistic take on the subject: “We are combining the strengths of two leading global companies to address a potential key market segment of the future.”
He also talks about ‘moving into the third dimension of travel’ but the topic is an exciting one so we can forgive him for getting a bit carried away. The important bit is that as part of this partnership, the companies will create an international team to address various aspects of urban air mobility, including analysis of the market potential for premium vehicles and possible use cases.
Steve Nordlund, Vice President and General Manager at Boeing NeXt said, “This collaboration builds on our efforts to develop a safe and efficient new mobility ecosystem, and provides an opportunity to investigate the development of a premium urban air mobility vehicle with a leading automotive brand.”
These urban air mobility solutions will transport passengers more quickly and efficiently than current terrestrial methods and consultants at Porsche have conducted a study that foresees a rise in interest in what they term the ‘urban air mobility market’ from 2025 onwards.
After so many failed attempts by so many companies, the logical thing to do here is to adopt a wait-and-see approach, but we still can’t help but get all excited about the thought of taking to the skies in a Porsche flying car. They could even name it the Porsche Flycan Turbo. With the combined resource of two industry leaders like Boeing and Porsche at the helm, perhaps it’s finally time to start building that rooftop landing pad at home.
Images courtesy of Porsche
