The most important innovators of this new model aircraft come preferably from the so-called technology axis in Germany. This is how the region from Karlsruhe via Stuttgart, Augsburg, Munich to Upper Bavaria is called. In addition to the major OEMs, there are countless suppliers to the automotive industry and a number of challengers for transport by air taxi.

On the one hand, these are startups such as Volocopter from Bruchsal near Karlsruhe and Lilium from Weßling near Starnberg. On the other hand, the big boys are playing along. Airbus Helicopters in Donauwörth near Augsburg and even Porsche from Zuffenhausen are there.

The sports car manufacturer Porsche is also intensively involved with drones for passenger transport. This was said by sales director Detlev von Platen in an interview in March of Automobilwoche. The Zuffenhausen-based company announced that they would shortly be presenting a design sketch. Their use alone between Stuttgart Airport and the company headquarters would make more than sense. It takes 40 minutes or more in the car and just three to four minutes in an air taxi.

Last week, Digital Minister Bär visited the International Aviation Exhibition in Berlin Schönefeld. There she inspected a model of the CityAirbus, which announced its maiden flight at the end of the year.

The air taxi reaches up to 500 metres in height and can accommodate up to four people. The CityAirbus has external dimensions of eight by eight meters and is therefore smaller than the smallest helicopter. This helps during take-off and landing, especially in cities on houses or limited parking areas.

Together with Siemens, the electric helicopter is being built. The CityAirbus is designed to take off and land vertically – and is considered suitable for revolutionizing local traffic and getting most of the traffic off the road and into the air. The Siemens colleagues are responsible for the electric drive, the air taxi from Bavarian-Swabia is supposed to be 120 kilometers fast. It is driven by eight Siemens electric motors. They each supply one propeller with energy, and the speed is then regulated by changing the speed.

Lilium has settled between Ammersee and Starnberger See. The Bavarian startup is building an air taxi for up to 5 people. The world’s first all-electric vertical take-off aircraft offers payment per trip as an air taxi, called at the push of a button. “Our mission is to make air taxis available to everyone and as affordable as driving,” says the makers’ mission. Last autumn, the German airline received 90 million dollars in a round of financing for the B series. In total, more than 100 million dollars have been invested in the financing rounds.

Bavaria’s latest coup is the recruitment of Frank Stephenson, a designer of some of the world’s most famous cars. He will join Lilium as Head of Product Design. The American-Spanish designer – known for his work at BMW, Mini, Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and McLaren – will lead the design of all aspects of Lilium services.

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Probably the best known of the newcomers comes from Bruchsal near Karlsruhe. Volocopter describes himself as a “pioneer in the development of air taxis” and presented his vision for the infrastructure of urban air taxis quite early on. The concept integrates air taxis into existing local transport structures and offers additional mobility for up to 10,000 passengers per day from the first point-to-point connection.

Co-founder Alex Zosel expects that the first fully developed Volocopter air taxi systems will already be reality in 10 years. With dozens of Volo hubs and Volo ports in one city, it is planned to carry up to 100,000 passengers per hour to their destination.

Volocopters are emission-free, electrically powered aircraft that take off and land vertically. They offer a particularly high level of safety, as all critical flight and control elements are redundantly installed. Volocopters are based on drone technology.

There is room for two people in each Volocopter and they can fly up to 27 kilometres. The Karlsruhe-based company has recently demonstrated this in Dubai and Las Vegas.

“Our ambitions are not limited to just developing the aircraft,” says Florian Reuter, Managing Director of Volocopter GmbH. “We are working on the whole ecosystem because we want to establish urban air oxide services all over the world. This includes the physical and digital infrastructure to manage the entire system.”

Similar ambitions as the German air taxi innovators have, for example, the US public transport operator Uber, its Chinese competitor Didi or the aircraft manufacturer Embraer with its “Elevate” system. Singapore or Dubai are regarded as important test regions, as the need for new, vertical take-off vehicles is particularly high here. Liberal legislation promotes the innovative spirit of the founders from all over the world.

And because the transports of the last mile(s) are exciting not only for the passengers but also for the goods, some manufacturers are developing dedicated air transporters in this segment. Last year, Daimler and the Swiss online marketplace Siroop in Zurich tested the delivery with the help of a cooperation between Daimler Vans and UAVs. The startup CARGODR.ONE comes from Hamburg – here I will have a talk with one of the founders in the next days.

It will be exciting in the last mile of transport – especially thanks to creative start-ups and enormous global competition in this vehicle segment.

Image Rights: Volocopter, Lilium, Airbus SAS, Daimler, Siroop, Michael Brecht