In a point-to-point system, products are transported directly from one location to another. This creates a web of individual nodes. The hub and spoke model centralizes the distribution process first by sending the products to a main hub and then distributing them to various nodes or end destinations.
What’s the problem?
When you have a single take-off and landing location, like an airport this leads to congestion. It also leads to the temptation to capture those looking to travel in long and arduous loops of lines and to find new ways to turn humans upside down and shake the cash out of our pockets for no real gain.
Vertiports are being touted as the flying cars’ new take-off and landing hubs by some of the companies who built the painful airports. We also see with commercial drone delivery a main hub, which has a few stores or restaurants and the products are loaded up, flown to the destination and the empty drone is flown back to base.
Old patterns persist
Skyports a London-based company focusing on global vertiport infrastructure and the electric drone sector, has raised over $110 million in funding to bolster its vertiport construction initiatives and accelerate its drone operations. The ACS Group, the $10B Spanish infrastructure company, are taking centre stage in this development.
The funds will drive advancements on two fronts. Firstly, Skyports Infrastructure, in collaboration with the Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai (RTA) and Joby Aviation, aims to develop its vertiport network in preparation for the launch of air taxi services in Dubai by 2026.
Secondly, Skyports Drone Services intends to enhance its current offerings, spanning offshore energy asset deliveries, medical logistics, linear asset inspections, and water quality monitoring services.
This investment round sees the ACS Group and Groupe ADP, a Paris-based airport operator and existing shareholder follow their commitments. Groupe ADP's participation dates back to Skyports' Series A funding round in 2019. Other investors include Irelandia Aviation, Kanematsu, and Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures. They have already developed a test Vertiport in Paris, but the politicians in France do not want to let the flying cars fly.
Inherent inefficiency
For flying cars to be useful they need to be able to take off and land near where people are. People are in their communities, close to their homes and places of work. This is not like existing airports and heliports which in the main, in the US, UK and Europe are located in relatively remote or inaccessible locations. Politicians petition to have them in their electoral jurisdictions to bring jobs from construction and ongoing services. This can be corrupted through centralized planning, which is easy to manipulate.
If we follow the same plan when building our drone and flying car infrastructure we will end up with the same bad results.
Creating a network of take-off and landing locations for flying cars can be done by utilising individuals’ property to develop the required infrastructure. The flying cars can be recharged, they can pick up and drop off commuters and don’t need to be tethered to an airport.
While my neighbour may not want to turn his yard into a take-off or drone loading location I might, and for this I would be able to charge a fee. My neighbour may then look on jealously as he sees me benefitting and she then builds a take-off and landing station with some added services, like a parcel store for people to collect their packages on the way home.
The market is created and the network is built according to the demands and requirements of its users. Contrast this with the last time you went through an airport. How long did it take to get there? How long did it take to get to the aircraft, and how long did it take to exit on the other side? Did you get a choice of competing airports to travel to in the same location, and if you did why did you choose the one you did?
Drones and real estate
Drones can integrate into the transport system but they need property owners for many reasons and not just as customers. They need the permission of the property owner to be in their airspace which SkyTrade helps with.
Competing drone operators can increase the radii of the area they deliver within by utilising a network of drone station nodes. These nodes are built on individual property owners’ land and can service the drone’s needs. These services are recharging, restocking and maintenance requirements.
Keeping our ambitions to what has been done before, and creating badly designed infrastructure for our future is a fast-track way to ensure proper adoption of what can be a growth driver to economies through drones and flying cars is slow to achieved escape velocity.
Developing the right way requires shifting from centralized command and control to a decentralized system. The added benefit is the individuals who build the network will benefit from the networks growth.
It’s time to build.