Air Taxis

[Guest]

After one too many unpleasant Uber rides, the two largest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing (#1) and Airbus (#2), took concrete steps forward to introduce air taxis on the same day (coincidence? We think not.)

Let’s start with Boeing. (+1.22%) It’s planning to purchase Aurora Flight Sciences, a futuristic unmanned systems company (that makes two such acquisitions in less than a year). Aurora’s 550-person team is proof that autonomous tech doesn’t just apply to cars—it’s been working on self-flyingapplications for both the U.S. government and Uber. 

Then there’s Airbus, (-0.41%) which is set to test its first air taxi flight by 2018. The Jetsons-era helicopter is not your average drone. Up to four passengers will whiz through city skylines in the battery-powered taxi at 80 mph. And similar to Boeing’s model, CityAirbus will be fully autonomous.

But don’t let TSA pat you down quite yet—Airbus predicts it will have commercial aerial taxis up and running by 2023.