Electric air taxis/EVTOL, the future of travel & the Isle of Dogs
It might surprise some people to know we have had a heliport operating behind the Vanguard building on Westferry road, since around the year 1980
I live next to it & 1 pic is from my balcony.
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A new operator has acquired a 15-year lease from Vanguard to run the heliport
But the new operators Skyports are mainly doing so now to get more experience of how heliports run because long term they want to be a new type of transport operator
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"Skyports is a mobility company developing and operating landing infrastructure for the electric air taxi revolution"
skyports.net
In places like Brazil, Dubai and Singapore, they are starting a new type of transport which may develop into a whole new industry
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- air taxis using electric air vehicles (like helicopters) for medium distance travel - think CW to Cambridge for example
Although one UK company talks about Canary Wharf being 13 minutes flying time to Heathrow
vertical-aerospace.com
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The UK is not ready yet from a regulatory viewpoint so nothing will happen for years & the technology is still being developed.
This 'airport' would be mainly passenger focussed but outside of London they are looking at cargo drones deliveries but London is too dense for that
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Helicopters do this already to some extent but are expensive to operate, noisy, and burn fossil fuels.
In theory, electric air vehicles (which often have multiple rotors which help with noise and safety) should be much quieter than turbine engine helicopters
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Given the history of the Isle of Dogs shipbuilding industry including SS Great Eastern(also designed to revolutionise travel) built close by it will be interesting to see how this industry develops here but as I said we are years away from any kind of regular operation
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as there are so many issues to sort out first.
They have no current plans to extend the landing area out into the river (as has been discussed in the past) and they are now aware of the desire to have a continuous river walkway which they (& where I live) currently block
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