When Rick Deckard, the hero of the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, gazes down at a futuristic Los Angeles from a flying police car, a Pan Am sign shines on one of the towers. It is a nod to the helicopter service from the old Pan Am airline building in Manhattan to John F Kennedy airport, which closed down in 1977 after a fatal accident.
Urban mobility is going back to the future. An executive of Uber, which wants to operate flying taxis by 2023, this week promised that the “ever elusive flying car” is almost here. He was speaking at a conference for its Elevate division, where details of its new 30-minute Uber Copter service from Manhattan to JFK were announced.
Uber has selected Dallas, Los Angeles and Melbourne in Australia as pilot cities for its Uber Air taxi service, while Lilium, a Munich-based start-up that is building an electric aircraft with 36 engines, plans to hire hundreds of software engineers in London. Advances in engines and batteries are making Deckard’s short aerial journey possible; the question is whether it is desirable.