Thank you to everyone for reading and supporting “Where is my flying car?”. The readership is growing weekly with so many people interested in finding ways to make real change. A particular note of thanks to readers who have contacted me with their introductions and capital support.
Air space use and access
The proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and electrical Vertical Take off and Landing (eVToL) vehicles has brought the prospect of autonomous air taxis, passenger and cargo drones ever closer, promising to alleviate congestion on crowded urban streets.
As the cost of service falls and flights become autonomous, the volume of takeoffs and landings at busy urban vertiports could reach hundreds per hour. This is compounded with drone take off sites, centralised landing spaces and personal deliveries to homes and business which could have the knock on effect of congestion in the skies.
Low altitude air space, is space in which new models for air traffic management can be developed, and errors made in traditional aviation command and control structures which stifle innovation and have favoured state entities can be avoided. We need to be very aware of not building this new dawn of transportation in the same old ways. Incumbents building this will only ever make incremental changes. They are unable to do anything else, it’s in their DNA and they can’t be blamed. How do we solve this and get exponential growth?
Big companies want to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because they want to avoid disasters. But when you damp oscillations, you lose the high points as well as the low. This is not a problem for big companies, because they don't win by making great products. Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies. Paul Graham , Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
All the innovation in the eVToL and UAV hardware category will amount to little if the air space to travel through is not available. If those who own the air rights have no way to take part in the market or the eVToL and UAV operators try and circumvent landowners rights growth will run to a stand still. Regulation is always an interesting topic. Too much and you stifle innovation and too little and people can be put at risk. Governments generally only regulate new industries when something negative has occurred and has pushed them into action or the incumbents who have power to close down innovators push for regulation that favours their own agenda. After all why regulate and risk getting it wrong or loosing your leading position? The collapse of FTX, accelerated due to the lack of guardrails and regulation in the Web3 industry is worth noting as to why, if done sensibly, regulation can help grow technologies and build trust, as detailed in this piece by a16z where regulating the apps not the protocols is discussed.
What we need is vision to build in ways that will give returns to both the air rights owners and make UAV transport ubiquitous. Air travel corridors will be created. Those who own the air space like municipalities and other landowners will allow its use, receive passive income and help drive innovation. Routes are created that allow leasing to operators, while also providing them with the certainty required to finance the capital investments to establish their services for us.
(playgroundai.com)
Airspace trespass and corner crossing
One of the key factors in understanding why stepping over a corner, even without stepping a toe on private land, can be considered trespassing is due to a spatial concept of real property. Land wouldn’t be very useful if ownership rights were limited to the surface. The air space up to a certain height c.400-1000 feet is owned by the landowner. This facilitates the building of structures and fences and ensures drones should not hover uninvited over someone’s house. Property corners are thought to be infinitely small points in space. To step over a corner where two public land parcels and two private land parcels meet would therefore automatically put a person in the airspace of the private land. Why do landowners care about the airspace?
According to the United Property Owners of Montana, “To cross a corner, a member of the public must cross all four corners, including the private ones. That is a trespass, a physical occupation of private property.” Therefore, they say, “There is no ‘minimal’ amount of trespass that wouldn’t be considered taking of property.”
This view has roots in the Fifth Amendment: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Essentially, landowners no matter how small the space or how limited the time it takes to step over a corner, if the government were to allow the public to step from one corner of public land to another over private property corners, that would be a taking of private property and a violation of Fifth Amendment rights.
Elk Mountain Ranch
A federal judge has ruled that a civil suit against four corner crossing hunters in Missouri, accused of trespass and damage by Elk Mountain Ranch owner Fred Eshelman, may proceed to trial in federal court. U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl denied the hunters’ request to dismiss the suit based on the federal Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885, which declares all enclosures of public lands as unlawful. The hunters argued that federal law supersedes Wyoming's trespass law on which Eshelman based his claim. The judges ruling could have significant implications for accessing an estimated 8.3 million acres of public land across the Western United States, 2.44 million in Wyoming. This is wider ranging, it speaks to the use of landowners air rights, both public and private.
Eshelman's civil suit claims that the hunters trespassed because they violated his airspace, a dimension from which he asserts he may exclude others. The judge has ruled that Eshelman has a “plausible claim” to bring in his allegations of trespass and damage.
Eshelman, a North Carolina businessman owns the Elk Mountain Ranch that covers more than 20,000 acres on wildlife-rich Elk Mountain. He requested that the judge declare the men guilty of civil trespass outright, prohibit them from corner crossing, and that a jury trial only resolve the damages due to him.
Interesting when you look at the checkerboard of the land parcels below, think about this in 3D and the need to have air rights codified for transit is crystal clear. Time to learn from history.
(amerisurv.com)
Moon Walker
Launched in 2009, Apollo underwrites at Lloyd’s of London via Syndicate since 1971. The Apollo name recognising the success of one of its founding investors Neil Armstrong, who in 1969 was the first person to land on the moon. Armstrong saw the opportunity to build a differentiated service provider at Lloyd’s.
The London-based independent specialist insurer and reinsurer, is providing capacity to Moonrock Drone Insurance, designed to provide coverage for larger commercial drone operations, meeting an increased demand in the market.
Moonrock, a managing general agent covers small commercial operators to large fleets of drones across multiple industries, such as film and TV, agriculture and construction, in the UK.
“The drone industry is an exciting area of innovation that can drive positive change in the UK economy as well as offering environmental benefits, and is a keen area of focus for the UK government,” commented Martin Jackson, who leads Apollo’s Aviation business.
The UK drone industry provides the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions by nearly 2.5 million tons, and 650,000 jobs could be associated with an U.K. economy that fully adopts drones, Apollo said.
New York Air Taxis
Blade Air Mobility and Beta Technologies have completed a successful test flight of their electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in the greater New York City area. Conducted at the Westchester County Airport, saw a prototype of Beta's ALIA-250 eVTOL fly over the airport alongside a conventional helicopter, before completing a flight by itself. The eVTOL features a fully electric propulsion system that produces just 1/10th of the sound decibel level of a normal helicopter. Blade intends to use the eVTOL as air taxis, and its stock price rose 12% in response to demo.
(ainonline)
Medical Drones Using Digital Corridors
Air transportation of blood, medicines, and lab samples using drones will soon be tested in the Netherlands as part of a partnership between the Dutch air traffic control system, travel association ANWB and telecom provider KPN. Such tests have been carried out in the past to find efficient ways of using the skies to avoid busy road traffic, but now a special investigation will be conducted to determine how using aerial drones can be made.
The first tests will take place this year between the Isala hospitals located in Zwolle and Meppel. Unmanned drones with a diameter of 240 centimeters will be used.
The drones must be able to select the shortest and fastest route. The intention is that they will travel using digital corridors, where there is separate space allocated for them in addition to regular aviation. Who owns the digital corridors and are the air rights owners aware?
Medical drone flights will also be able to communicate with an Unmanned Traffic Management System (UTM system) in flight, which means that the flight can be carried out more efficiently and safely, among other things. The first flights between the Isala branches are planned for the first half of this year. Later in 2023, flights will also be carried out in other places, including in the Rotterdam region.
Dubai Flying Cars
Dubai is planning for the takeoff of flying taxis for a planned launch by 2026.
Dubai’s ruler announced the relaunched flying taxi program, saying air taxis will begin flying in Dubai within three years. Sheikh Mohammed, the Dubai ruler, revealed that he had approved designs for air taxi stations at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
It also includes the city plans for four “vertiports” by Dubai International Airport, downtown Dubai, Palm Jumeirah archipelago and Dubai Marina. Those points will include two launching pads and four charging points for the flying taxis.
The pricing for the flying taxis will be set in the range of a limousine service in Dubai, maybe slightly higher. This is around 30% higher than a regular taxi. Taxis have a minimum fare of around $3.25 and charge $0.50 a kilometer.
Opening the skies to flying taxis would contribute to easing the daily traffic that’s only worsening as the city population grows to over 3.5 million people.
Rush hour on Sheikh Zayed Road, a dozen-lane artery running down the length of the Dubai is gridlocked.
eVToL Operations In Australia
Wisk Aero and the South East Queensland Council of Mayors have released a report on the benefits of advanced air mobility (AAM) in Australia. The two entities signed an agreement in July 2022 to collaborate on sustainable and accessible autonomous flight options in the region. Brisbane is expected to be an early adopter of eVTOL operations, with the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games potentially driving the demand for such services. South East Queensland is an attractive market for AAM with its fast-growing population and projected increase in demand for transportation services. Electric air taxis could provide the region with a low-cost, sustainable mode of transportation and offer economic benefits. Wisk is developing a fully electric and autonomous eVTOL air taxi and envisioning a future AAM ecosystem in the region that complements existing transportation options.
Do we actually want growth?
We have drones, we have UAVs, we have eVToLs, we have insurers but we don’t have highways in the sky for the vehicles to be able to travel. Imagine parking lots full of cars and your garage with a car sitting in it but no roads. Think about trains of all shapes and sizes being built, wonderful trains, with extra bells, even whistles offering us the prospect of a new world, the West, but no railroads to reach it. This sounds crazy, yet we are letting it happen. But are we crazy or just inert?
We don't have the warp drive, we don't have the transporter, we can't re-engineer matter in this cornucopian world where there is no scarcity. And how good is a society where you have a well-functioning Star Trek computer, but nothing else from Star Trek? - Peter Thiel
This lack of imagination and conviction that’s stopping a massive step change in transportation and property is starting to change with us in SkyTrades as we build highways in the sky. jonathan@skytrades.io
(deepai)