Air Taxis – Becoming a Reality
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Today, roughly 1 billion airline passengers per year are concentrated through only 50 hub airports in the US to reach just the 380 airports served by scheduled airlines. Many small aircraft (and operators) could be spread across the country to decentralize some passenger travel, offering better connectivity to air bases and rural communities.
The US is home to nearly 200,000 small aircraft (roughly half of the world’s small aircraft fleet) and over 600,000 pilots with access to 5,100 public use airfields (20,000 counting private fields, helipads, and seaplane bases); all of them well regulated and supported by a robust supply chain.
Now, the transportation of personnel and cargo between US Air Force bases may be performed by on-demand air taxis. Transportation ecosystem management platform EZ Aerospace has announced that it will conduct the research and development of the system under a recently awarded Air Force Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contract. The company hopes to build a dual-use air taxi market that will serve both government and commercial customers.
The team’s research has already identified roughly 1,000 aircraft the Air Force could better utilize to help movements domestically. Air Taxis are often cheaper than airlines, safer than driving, and could help Airmen avoid crowded hub airports. This work supports the Agility Prime program, fostering advanced new aircraft designs, such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.
EZ Aerospace is focused on building a marketplace for dual-use air taxis that can serve both government and commercial travelers. Today, a marketplace could foster more competition and drive down costs to the Air Force. Such a marketplace will be crucial to the Air Force’s future utilization of these new vehicles and the commercial viability of novel urban and regional air mobility concepts.
“EZ Aerospace’s novel approach uses existing on-demand charter air carriers, organic airlift, auxiliary airlift, and scheduled airlines,” the company said. “The team is betting on better utilizing existing regulations, technology, and government airlift contracts to bootstrap this futuristic method of flying in the safest, most affordable, and practical way, starting immediately, with no radical new technology required.”
The company said it has identified around 1,000 aircraft the Air Force could better use to improve domestic transport, according to a report by avweb.com.
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