Boeing autonomous passenger drone
The gold rush of autonomous passenger drone building continues, and leading aerospace engineering company Boeing is in the game, recently prototyping the Boeing autonomous passenger drone in Manassas, Virginia.
The prototype is an EVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft and has been developed under Boeing’s subsidiary company Aurora Flight Sciences. With a range of up to 50 miles at present, the Boeing autonomous passenger drone is 9.14 meters long and 8.53 meters wide.
Boeing has been in the aerospace technology game since 1916, and continues to lead the charge in the field. The company has dedicated a division called ‘NeXt’ to its autonomous flight and advanced propulsion innovations, and in a recent press release, Steve Nordlund, Vice President and General Manager of Boeing NeXt comments on a partnership with Porsche to build on their efforts in the new urban air mobility ecosystem:
“This collaboration builds on our efforts to develop a safe and efficient new mobility ecosystem and provides an opportunity to investigate the development of a premium urban air mobility vehicle with a leading automotive brand. Porsche and Boeing together bring precision engineering, style, and innovation to accelerate urban air mobility worldwide.”
The press release went on to mention that “A 2018 study by Porsche Consulting forecasts that the urban air mobility market will pick up speed after 2025. The study also indicates that urban air mobility solutions will transport passengers more quickly and efficiently than current conventional means of terrestrial transport, at a lower cost and with greater flexibility.”
Aside from this new partnership, The Boeing autonomous passenger drone is one of the many partners of Uber’s network of autonomous passenger drone vehicles. While there are many competitors in the market today, such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Ehang, and more, Boeing NeXt and Porsche could be the path forward to widely available passenger drone air taxis.
The team will be able to pull from over a century of avian design experience with Boeing alongside Porsche’s vast experience in the consumer high-end vehicle market. 2025 is looking more and more like an episode of the Jetsons, and we are all about it.
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