By Mick Akers | Las Vegas Review-Journal
Soon the skies above urban areas could look like a scene straight out of the Jetsons.
The feasibility of flying taxis becoming the next big thing in urban transportation is a buzz at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.
Multiple conferences and booths dealing with flying cars are present at this year’s gathering of technology companies, the city’s largest annual trade show by volume.
None are getting more attention than a test project that ride hailing giant Uber and aircraft manufacturer Bell are ready to launch as early as next year.
Part of its “elevate aviation” initiative, Uber, along with Bell, plans to operate a network of small, electric aircraft in three cities — Los Angeles, Dallas and an unnamed international city — in 2020, with around 10-12 aircraft in each market, according to Tom Prevot, director of airspace systems at Uber Elevate.
“These are going to be flights under an experimental certificate,” he said. “There we can prove out those vehicle technologies and we will then scale through simulated flights, so we can test the air space properly.”
