Electric helicopter service to JFK airport in final stages of approval, technology company says

New York City’s congested streets and unreliable subway service can make trips from Manhattan to JFK Airport perilous, but a West Coast technology company announced a new, more expensive solution Thursday: helicopters electrical.

Executives from California-based Joby Aviation unveiled a model of their futuristic plane at Grand Central Terminal. They claim it is capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 mph and making the trip from the midtown Manhattan heliport to the Queens air hub in just seven minutes. Joby says his helicopter – which he calls a “flying taxi” – is quieter than helicopters operated by companies like Blade, which also serve JFK Airport but regularly draw complaints about noise from New- Yorkers tired of hearing them rumbling above their heads.

Eric Allison, chief product officer at Joby, said the company would be able to launch the helicopter service at a relatively cheap price, similar to the luxury car services offered by Uber, which is collaborating with the company on the connector airport.

“We think we can launch something around Uber Black pricing, in terms of price per seat,” Allison said, referring to the black car service in the ride-hailing app Uber. “Then as we build muscle…we think we could get that price down to the price of an UberX.”

The plane looks like a chubby dragonfly. It has six electric motors that help it take off and land vertically, and its motors are designed to rotate horizontally during transport. The plane produces no operating emissions, according to Joby.

A Joby spokesperson said the company was in the process of certifying the plane for commercial use through the Federal Aviation Administration. The company plans to roll out its service in New York and Los Angeles after obtaining this certification, but offered no time frame for approval.

Allison said the company plans to launch the electric helicopters in Dubai by the end of 2025. He said the company has a “handful” of aircraft in the United States that could be launched once certified.

The comfortable cabin of the aircraft can accommodate four passengers and a pilot.

The announcement of Joby’s plans comes nearly a year after Mayor Eric Adams announced the first steps in developing a “sustainable transportation and deliveries” hub at the midtown Manhattan Heliport.

Adams said in a statement at the time that the helicopter terminal would become the “world’s first heliport with the infrastructure to support electric flight” and supporting “quieter helicopter alternatives.” . Joby tested his electric plane at Adams’ press conference last November, where he took off from the heliport and circled downtown Manhattan several times before landing on the same platform .

On its website, Joby claims that its electric flying taxi is as quiet as a conversation and that its engineering team has worked to make the plane “quiet enough to land in your neighborhood.”

“We are able to adjust the acoustic signature so that the image can blend into the background, instead of the low-frequency ‘wop wop’ of helicopters flying for miles and entering buildings,” he said. said Joby founder JoeBen Bevirt during Adams’ press conference. last year. “It sounds more like the sound of traffic or a fan.”