“Air Taxis will be flying over Ireland in 2027”, says Future Mobility Campus

The Future Mobil­i­ty Cam­pus Ire­land (FMCI) announced last week, it expects to have air taxis capa­ble of car­ry­ing up to four pas­sen­gers oper­at­ing in the coun­try by 2027, reports irishexaminer.com.

The FMCI is among a group of glob­al experts to take part in a Dublin Con­fer­ence next month (April 15th-18th) on the future of trans­port and mobil­i­ty in Europe (TRA2024). “The organ­i­sa­tion is work­ing on devel­op­ing a new space for smarter, safer, more sus­tain­able trans­port for peo­ple and goods,” says the arti­cle. 

Based in the Shan­non Free Zone, it pro­vides facil­i­ties for researchers, soft­ware devel­op­ers and com­pa­nies to test their inno­va­tions. One of FMCI’s top projects is the devel­op­ment of Ireland’s first elec­tric pas­sen­ger and car­go air­craft research facil­i­ty. 

Rus­sell Vick­ers, CEO of FMCI, remarked, “This will enable the launch of Ireland’s first elec­tric air taxi ser­vice and reg­u­lar BVLOS drone oper­a­tions. We’re on track to enable pas­sen­ger eVTOL ser­vices in Ire­land dur­ing 2027.”

He con­tin­ued, “We expect the ini­tial flights will be cen­tred around our test area here in Shan­non, Coun­ty Clare, with air­craft capa­ble of car­ry­ing up to four peo­ple at a time.” Adding, “It’s an incred­i­bly excit­ing, col­lab­o­ra­tive effort involv­ing our­selves, Shan­non Air­port Group and oth­er key part­ners.”

Rus­sell Vick­ers

The FMCI includes 4km of pub­lic road net­work with­in the Shan­non Indus­tri­al Estate that includes CCTV cam­eras, sen­sors and traf­fic lights to act as a test­bed for autonomous vehi­cles and micro-mobil­i­ty devices. FMCI is also part of a con­sor­tium with plans to devel­op a pas­sen­ger and car­go ver­ti­port using unmanned air­craft.

The irishexaminer.com writes, “The FMCI facil­i­tates the test and val­i­da­tion of mobil­i­ty inno­va­tions on the road and in the air allow­ing researchers and com­pa­nies both in Ire­land and inter­na­tion­al­ly to tri­al, test and inno­vate solu­tions in a lab­o­ra­to­ry with real-life con­di­tions.”

Vick­ers con­tin­ued, “Ire­land has nev­er been in a posi­tion to com­pete for the kind of heavy indus­try involved in fos­sil fuel pow­ered trans­port. How­ev­er, as renew­able and sus­tain­able fac­tors become more impor­tant, we know we have the tech­no­log­i­cal tal­ent to put our­selves at the fore­front of inno­va­tion for an indus­try that’s set to evolve for many years to come”.

Amongst the dai­ly themes to be dis­cussed at the Dublin TRA2024 Con­fer­ence, which is sup­port­ed by both the EU Com­mis­sion and Irish Gov­ern­ment, include safe and inclu­sive trans­port; sus­tain­able mobil­i­ty of peo­ple and goods; and effi­cient and resilient infra­struc­ture and col­lab­o­ra­tive dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion. 

Dr Bob Fly­nn who works along­side the FMCI Team, com­ment­ed, “Rus­sell and his organ­i­sa­tion are an out­stand­ing exam­ple of the inno­v­a­tive minds cre­at­ing the future of trans­port, right here in Ire­land, and theirs is the kind of work we are excit­ed to plat­form at the Con­fer­ence. Their ambi­tion, tal­ent and achieve­ments to date will cap­ti­vate our inter­na­tion­al del­e­gates and spark impor­tant dis­cus­sions.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://futuremobilityireland.ie/

https://traconference.eu

(News Source: www.irishexaminer.com)

(Top Image: FMCI)

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