ALBAWABA - Volocopter, a German aircraft manufacturer, had intended to raise an electric-powered flying taxi above Paris during the Olympic Games, AFP reports citing company officials. However, the plans have been abandoned as certification for the engine has yet to come through.
In cooperation with the French airport operator ADP, the capital's metro and bus operator RATP, and the Paris regional government, Volocopter has been carrying out test flights in the Paris area for a number of years, while vigorously pushing for license from European authorities in preparation for the Olympics.
Its "Volocity" aircraft, which features two seats for the pilot and one passenger and is equipped with 18 electric rotors on a circular frame over the hull, was supposed to land on a floating platform above the Seine River near the Austerlitz railway station in southeast Paris throughout the Games, AFP notes, instead it will now land in a different suburban town.
Edward Arkwright, deputy CEO of ADP, indicated that the engine designed and manufactured by Volocopter, called VoloCity, had its certification postponed by several weeks mainly because of its motors, owing the delay to a “an American supplier who was not capable of providing what he had promised.”
“We are a little disappointed, but in any case we had said that we would not make any compromises with security,” he added.
Despite missing its initial target of making its Summer Olympics debut in Paris, Volocopter still plans to start commercial operations with its electric flying taxis in the first half of 2025 as it has been able to acquire the necessary funding to finalize the certification procedure, Bloomberg notes according to the company’s CEO Dirk Hoke.
