2024-08-08 14:00:00
«The brake is real“, acknowledged Augustin de Romanet, CEO of Groupe ADP, on the morning of Thursday, August 8. The Volocity flying taxis, designed and manufactured by the German start-up Volocopter, were to carry out several experimental flights during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in partnership with the former Aéroports de Paris. The flying taxi flights during the Olympic Games were to be carried out from a converted platform, moored to a quay at Austerlitz, in the east of the capital. The objective: to connect the Olympic sites thanks to the four other vertiports in operation at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, Le Bourget, Issy-les-Moulineaux and Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole. It will not be achieved.
Volocopter and ADP had to abandon their project due to a certification problem linked to a failure of the engines, which had to be returned to the United States to be checked by their supplier.The engine had small vibrations which justified that the EASA [Agence européenne de sécurité aérienne, ndlr]asks the American manufacturer to make modifications“, detailed Augustin de Romanet on Thursday August 8 on France Info. «We remain hopeful of being certified in 2024“, adds the CEO of ADP, recalling that no other company has yet obtained certification for vertical take-off devices.
In the meantime, Vélocopter and ADP plan to organize flight demonstrations with a prototype, without passengers. The first is to take place this Thursday at the Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole aerodrome (Yvelines) and the second on Sunday from the Grand Trianon, in the park of the Château de Versailles.
A project criticized by the Paris city hall
Equipped with 18 electric motors, the Volocity aircraft must be able to carry a passenger (in addition to the pilot) to an altitude of between 150 and 300 meters, over a maximum distance of 21 kilometers.
On Tuesday, July 9, the government gave the green light to the creation of the vertiport near the Gare d’Austerlitz to allow ADP and Volocopter to test the Volocity. The ultimate goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of a new mode of transport in dense urban areas by circulating these vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft between several vertiports. But the project, which had been discussed since the end of 2020, had already experienced several setbacks, with Volocopter having already failed to obtain certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in time to accommodate paying passengers.
Supported by the Île-de-France region, the experiment is strongly criticized by the Paris City Hall, David Belliard, deputy for Mobility, denouncing a project that is both anti-ecological and “very expensive“For its part, the Environmental Authority also issued a very critical opinion highlighting its noise pollution, its energy consumption, the safety issues raised and its visual impact.
Faced with these criticisms, operators are now putting more emphasis on uses related to the delivery of medicines for hospitals and goods in remote areas, but also the transfer of injured people, rather than private transport. According to a study carried out by EASA in 2021, the flying taxi market could represent around 4.2 billion euros in 2030, with 90,000 jobs at stake.
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