Step out of a jet and step into a taxi. From Charles De Gaulle to Paris City Centre, watch the distance vanish. Savour your troubles, the traffic, and the throngs disappear. You are now abroad a flying taxi.
Currently, with a project being examined under a feasibility study undertaken in collaboration by Airbus, Aeroports de Paris and the Paris Transport Authority, flying taxies are not a distant fantasy. In fact, they actually bear a date stamp. The 2024 Paris Olympics. At this mega global event, the city aims to give the visitors a flying start by offering airborne taxi rides from the airport directly to the tournament sites. The facility will, of course, cost a packet. And only be available to those with deep pockets. It is Paris at a price.
Visitors who fly in to the City of Lights today have the following options to reach the city centre. A 35-minute train journey, a 45-90 minutes bus ride or an hour-long taxi drive. A fourth option now looms over the horizon. The flying taxis will facilitate the commute in six minutes flat. These taxis will have 2 variants - single-seater and 4 seaters. It is the ultimate in technological solutions and provides a way out of saturated motorways and maintains urban mobility.
The initiative is currently under experimentation. At the recent Paris Air Show, the project was introduced. It was also broadcast that the Olympics would provide the ideal opportunity to showcase these futuristic Vertical Take-Off and Landing machines. Aeroports de Paris will soon be selecting a site to construct its base of operations over the next two years. The link will then be tested through an existing helicopter corridor. Safety regulations, however, have to be stringently adhered to and durability of battery power tested and verified. Once the services commence a taxi is expected to take off every six minutes. And also drop you off at the city centre in about the same time.