The government is spending £9m on flying taxis for London airports

Admit it, we’ve all wanted to own a private helicopter and commute through the skies. Although you may not be able to afford your own, the government has just given a £9m grant to test flying electric taxis that could transport people to airports in the future.

In the midst of some of the worst public transport and airport staff shortages and strikes that the UK has ever seen, the government has decided to fund the UK Research and Innovation agency’s Future Flight Challenge consortium so that it can conduct test flights on Vertical Aerospace’s ‘VX4 eVTOL’ aircraft, controlled by Virgin Atlantic, between Heathrow and London City airports, plus other as-yet-unannounced locations. 

With around half of passengers arriving at airports in private vehicles, these ‘electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles’ could offer a more sustainable alternative mode of transportation, seating up to four passengers, and might even replace private helicopters altogether. The flying electric taxis will undergo one virtual and two physical tests and if successful these planes could be implemented in transportation to and from airports very soon. 

The Future Flight Challenge includes many prominent air travel companies, like Vertical Aerospace and Virgin Atlantic, plus Cranfield and Warwick universities, NATS, and Heathrow and London City airports. It aims to implement zero-emission air travel in and around British cities by 2030 by investing in technology and ‘creating the aviation system of the future’, which will make commutes easier. Boris Johnson and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng are also eager to develop new methods of air travel, and announced earlier in the year that they were providing £273 million in government funding to improve aerospace innovation. 

So, aviation is clearly moving forward (and up). ‘Prepare the electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, Parker. I’m going to Heathrow for lunch.’ 

In more prosaic air-travel news, flights were disrupted when Luton Airport’s runway melted.

Selfridges is hosting a new Spider-Man pop-up shop.