South Korea: eVTOLs to Fly Above Iconic Ara Waterway Canal, Incheon in 2024

In a bid to become an Asian spear­head for the eVTOL indus­try, South Korea has select­ed Ara Water­way, a canal that con­nects the Han Riv­er which flows through Seoul to the Yel­low Sea, as the first loca­tion to demon­strate fly­ing taxis, reports ajudaily.com. Begin­ning in August 2024, eVTOLs will be tri­alled by fly­ing above the canal’s 8.7 mile sec­tion in the west­ern port city of Incheon.

Before the tests, the gov­ern­ment is to estab­lish a reg­u­la­to­ry sand­box for eVTOLs. In 2025, the tri­als will expand to the Han Riv­er and Tan­cheon which flows from Yon­gin City south of Seoul to the south­ern areas of the Cap­i­tal city.

The demon­stra­tions are part of South Kore­a’s plans to pre­pare for the next-gen­er­a­tion mobil­i­ty. Dur­ing a pub­lic debate on Jan­u­ary 25th, South Kore­an Pres­i­dent Yoon Suk-yeol announced an invest­ment of USD8.2 bil­lion to alle­vi­ate traf­fic con­ges­tion dur­ing com­mute times. Yoon also plans to expand a high-speed under­ground com­muter rail project called “The Great Train Express” right across the nation.

The Ara Water­way (Cred­it — Insta­gram)

ajudaily.com does not state which eVTOL com­pa­nies will par­tic­i­pate in these tri­als or how many there will be. There is a strong pos­si­bil­i­ty that drones, both car­go and deliv­ery, will also be a part of these demon­stra­tions, giv­en that South Korea’s Trans­port Min­istry aims to com­mer­cialise this sec­tor in 2025. 

Last year, the Min­istry unveiled a plan to con­struct ver­ti­ports at four major rail­way sta­tions (Pyeong­taekJi­je, Gangne­ung, Masan and Dae­jeon). The aim is for pas­sen­gers to step off a train, walk a short dis­tance to an eVTOL hub, where they can con­tin­ue their jour­ney.

(News Source: www.ajudaily.com)

(Top image: Cred­it — Lee Sang-woo)

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