Boeing and Porsche announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Thursday launching a partnership to “explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace.” According to Boeing, the companies plan to create a team to study areas of urban air mobility including market analysis and use cases for “premium” urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles. They are also partnering with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to develop and test an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concept.
“This collaboration builds on our efforts to develop a safe and efficient new mobility ecosystem, and provides an opportunity to investigate the development of a premium urban air mobility vehicle with a leading automotive brand,” said Boeing NeXt Vice President and General Manager Steve Nordlund. “Porsche and Boeing together bring precision engineering, style and innovation to accelerate urban air mobility worldwide.”
Boeing NeXt and Aurora are also developing the autonomous passenger air vehicle (PAV) eVTOL, which flew for the first time last January. Porsche says a 2018 study conducted by its consulting arm “forecasts that the urban air mobility market will pick up speed after 2025,” along with suggesting that UAM solutions will be faster and more efficient and cost less than “conventional” ground-based transportation.
