Boeing's flying car stands out to revolutionize urban transportation

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Boeing Co said on Wednesday that its prototype flying car briefly hovered in the air during an inaugural test flight, a modest but significant step in the fact that the world's greatest planner wants to revolutionize urban transport and parcel delivery.

Boeing competes with its rival Airbus SE and many other companies for the development of small autonomous vehicles capable of taking off and landing vertically.

Investments, fueled by self-sustaining technological advances as well as frustration with traffic congestion, could change the face of the aerospace industry over the next decade.

The Boeing aircraft (9 meters) long, both helicopter, drone and fixed wing aircraft, took off just a few feet from the ground and landed smoothly after less than a minute of takeoff Tuesday in an airport in Manbadas, Virginia, said Boeing.

Future flights will be tested with a wing flight.

"That's what the revolution looks like, it's because of our autonomy," said John Langford, president and CEO of Boeing's subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, in a press release announcing the test flight.

Key barriers to Boeing's vision of "stress-free" mobility – as it is called in the company's marketing materials – include sorting through many critical security and regulatory issues to merge traditional road traffic with fleets of flying cars.

Boeing is working with startup SparkCognition Inc and the US Federal Aviation Administration to develop a traffic management system for three-dimensional highways, as well as the regulatory framework that will allow autonomous vehicle waves to circulate safely. around buildings, announced the company.

Last year, Boeing bought Aurora Flight Sciences, based in Manbadas, to accelerate the development of a fleet of autonomous air vehicles. With Aurora, Boeing is also working on the Uber Technologies Inc. project. [UBER.UL] UberAIR service for flights to be ordered via smartphones around 2023.

Boeing seeks to achieve a range of 50 km with two variants of a flying car that can carry two or four pbadengers each. Testing is planned for later this year on a package transport version that can lift up to 500 pounds (226.8 kg).

Competitors range from Airbus to Volocopter, which tested taxi-drones resembling a small helicopter equipped with 18 rotors, and AeroMobil, with the concept of an extended limousine that can become a fixed-wing aircraft.

Vertical Aerospace, which conducted a flight test last year, aims to offer short intercity flights in the coming years with a piloted aircraft capable of carrying several pbadengers.

(This story corrects the element of time with reference to the test flight, which took place on Tuesday.)