Flying cars might soon be coming to a city near you, or at least Orlando, as the city has signed onto a partnership with NASA to develop strategies for welcoming oversized electric drones.
The drones will take off vertically from landing pads called vertiports, and the city's first port will be built by the German company Lillium in the Lake Nona area.
Flying vehicles have still not been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, even though officials think the mode of transportation could take off in coming years.
Jacques Coulon, a transportation planning projects coordinator for the city of Orlando, shared that things could get going with the launch pads as soon as 2024, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
"We've heard from different operators that their hope is to be in operation with passengers sometime in the 2024-2025 time frame," Coulon said. "For us, that means they'll want to have a vertiport in place, and so we'll need to have regulations set and full understanding of what those impacts are before then."
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According to Nancy Mendonca, a NASA official, the agency has heard from the FAA that companies are already applying for certifications for potential air taxis.
Coulon shared with the Journal that there could be several vertiports throughout the city of Orlando with the technology becoming more mainstream.
Orlando and Lillium came to a deal last year, allowing a Lake Nona developer, Tavistock Group, to build the vertiports. As a result, the ports could be the first in the U.S., depending on when they are built.
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The city will contribute almost $1 million over the next decade in the form of property tax rebates, being that Lillium complies with job creation and wage requirements.
One port would cost an estimated $25 million, supporting two landing pads and the ability to charge eight vehicles.
The plans designed by Lillium are electric and have 36 engines, officials shared. One Lillium official speculated that the price for a trip would rival luxury flights, but as they become more common, the cost would drop to the price of a trip in a car.
While the "Back to the Future" franchise thought flying cars would have been around for the last decade, they may soon become a part of everyday life.
