Watch This Flying Taxi Soar Over a German City

This 18-rotor two-seater drone could one day fly you to work.

Urban Flight

Enough with the renders of futuristic flying taxis — real-life prototypes of flying cars are finally taking to the skies, and we're here for it.

German flying car startup Volocopter just showed off its air taxi taking flight at Stuttgart's Mercedes-Benz Museum. Its remotely-operated flight over a football field near the museum was a striking preview of urban consumer flight.

 

Safe and Quiet

It's not the very first flight of the aircraft — it's demonstrated its flying capabilities on a number of occasions so far. But it's the first time it's soared over a city, a crucial step toward making an urban flying cab service a reality.

"As Stuttgart has seen today, they fly safely, quietly, and are fast approching the implementation stage," Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter said in a statement.

World First

The news comes after the company's Volocopter 2X, the same two-seater multirotor aircraft, made history by becoming the first flying aircraft of its kind to take off from an international airport in August.

The aircraft has a range of about 27 kilometers (16 miles) and reach speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph).

READ MORE: Watch all-electric air taxi ‘Volocopter’ make debut urban flight in Stuttgart [Electrek]

More on Volocopter: Flying Taxi Takes Off from International Airport for the First Time