A young French start-up recently presented an original concept of a flying taxi. These are capsules that can accommodate one passenger at a time, in the context of short-distance travel within the city. If everything goes according to plan, this means of transport could be launched during the Summer Olympics in Paris in 2024.
In several French cities in 2025 or 2026
The flying taxi represents part of the future for many companies in the field of urban mobility. While many projects are currently continuing their development, the European Union gave the first approval to the German company Volocopter in 2019. The EU has therefore recognized that the development and construction processes of this company’s flying taxis are at an acceptable level. Many projects therefore follow the same path and hope one day to see their vehicles survey the skies of city dwellers.
The young French start-up Caps has come up with an unprecedented flying taxi concept, presented at the Vivatech show in Paris Expo from June 16 to June 19, 2021. autonomous air transport system with one seat which could be the subject of a first launch on the occasion of the Paris Olympics in 2024. If successful, the concept will be commercially exploited in 2025 or 2026 in certain major cities of the country.
The idea of Caps is to install mobile landing stations within cities, structures that are quite light and easy to move when needed. These stations can be adapted to different locations such as airports, train stations and other business centers.
A relevant concept on several points
With no less than eight electric motors, these capsules promise individual flights at a speed of 70 km/h maximum at an altitude between 150 and 300 m, within a radius of 15 km. If only one person can board this type of autonomous capsule after a reservation via an online application, the start-up has planned a plan after all remote control takeover by a professional in the event of a technical problem. Let’s also mention that these devices include a parachute for the passenger, in case of emergency. Caps claims to have conducted field tests with satisfactory results.
If the project is still in prototype phase, the CEO of Caps Paul Casse wants to shift up a gear. The person concerned, interviewed in January 2021 in a publication of the University of Paris-Sarclay, seems confident of his idea. According to him, we have a means of transport here that is fast, autonomous, cheap and environmentally friendly. Above all, this capsule system really fulfills a need, because 70% of our city trips are individual.
