AutoFlight’s Solar Barge for eVTOLs

The new vertiport barge making its public debut

Air taxis might be the next big thing but they can’t get very big if there’s no place for them to land. AutoFlight Aviation Technology is developing a vertiport that’s essentially a solar-powered barge that can go where it’s needed – water permitting.

VTOL air taxis based on a new generation of multi-rotor craft might fulfill the promise of the old helicopter passenger services that emerged in America and Britain in the 1940s and 50s, only to flame out and be reduced to a niche market.

The reasons for this decline were many but one big factor was the lack of places for the helicopters to land. They held out the prospect of revolutionizing urban travel by leapfrogging over city traffic so travel from airport to urban center or between nearby cities could be done in minutes instead of hours. Unfortunately, when the landing options are a handful of skyscraper rooftops or repurposed piers you end up trading one bottleneck for another.

AutoFlight

Now, AutoFlight is showing off its solution in the form of a self-propelled, solar-powered barge called the Integrated Sea–Air Low-Altitude Economy Solution that can be moved where it is needed on any reasonably sized waterfront.

Consisting of a landing pad covered with solar panels and a cabin that doubles as a departure lounge and technical room, the floating vertiport is large enough to handle not only the company’s six-passenger Prosperity I eVTOL, but the cargo and commercial White Shark and CarryAll robotic rotorcraft.

The mobile nature of the new vertiport is claimed to make it suitable for a number of applications beyond urban commuting. The company says that it can also be used for offshore maintenance jobs, search and rescue operations, and air tourism. It would also be possible to cluster a number of vertiports at short notice to respond to sudden increases in passenger or cargo demands.