{"id":879165,"date":"2026-06-19T22:22:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879165\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T22:22:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T22:22:56","slug":"drone-deliveries-flying-taxis-coming-for-nycs-airspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/879165\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Deliveries, Flying Taxis Coming for NYC\u2019s Airspace"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n One flying car company says New York\u2019s Skies could one day look like a scene from The Fifth Element.
\n Video: Gaumont, Sony Pictures Entertainment\n <\/p>\n

Those scanning the skies over the East River this summer may spot something unfamiliar \u2014 a cargo drone schlepping packages between the Downtown Skyport in lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Marine Terminal just south of Brooklyn Bridge Park. With its seven-foot wingspan, the white Speedbird drone \u2014 which looks like the love child of a Stormtrooper and a spider \u2014 can be spotted a mile away. Overseen by a team of three, it\u2019s operated by a big outfit, Skyports Drone Services<\/a>, a U.K.-based logistics company \u201cdelivering what matters\u201d for governments and businesses around the globe. So what exactly is this thing hauling over the river?<\/p>\n

On a recent morning, Kyle St. Paul, a drone hub operator for Skyports and a former Air Force surveillance technician, was on the downtown tarmac readying the drone for its first flight of the day. The elaborate safety check included tightening the arms, checking the GPS system and parachute, swapping the battery, and, yes, inspecting the cargo. Slowly, as if to prolong the suspense, St. Paul lifted the box lid to reveal its contents: an $8 package of printer paper.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n From left: <\/strong>James Greenway and Kyle St. James ready the Skyport drone for its first flight of the day. Photo: Anne KadetOffice printer paper! Photo: Anne Kadet\n <\/p>\n

\n From top: <\/strong>James Greenway and Kyle St. James ready the Skyport drone for its first flight of the day. Photo: Anne KadetOffice printer paper! Photo: Ann… more
\n From top: <\/strong>James Greenway and Kyle St. James ready the Skyport drone for its first flight of the day. Photo: Anne KadetOffice printer paper! Photo: Anne Kadet\n <\/p>\n

Relax! This is only a test. It\u2019s not yet possible to get printer paper delivered by drone to one\u2019s office. Skyports is partnering with the Port Authority on a yearlong trial of its drone delivery service. Seven times a day, its aircraft make the four-minute East River crossing carrying dummy cargo, an operation overseen by James Greenway, a remote pilot who came to Skyports from Amazon, where he managed flight operations for its Prime Air delivery service. This test is Skyports\u2019s first step on the long road to launching in New York, says Greenway. Later this year, the drones will be carrying medical supplies for the program\u2019s first client, a hospital. And then, assuming all the approvals are in place, Skyports \u2014 and its competitors \u2014 can open for business, speeding everything from blood samples to documents through the city skies. \u201cWe\u2019re all very excited about this,\u201d says Greenway. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to bring good things to New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Skyport\u2019s drone over the East River.
\n Photo: Anne Kadet\n <\/p>\n

Recent years have seen major advances in aerial technology, from the creation of autonomous flying taxis to the launch of helium zeppelins the length of a football field. Though little has made its way here, many companies developing these sci-fi-seeming technologies see New York as an essential proving ground. Earlier this year, Santa Cruz, California\u2013based Joby Aviation<\/a> ran a series of demonstration flights between Manhattan and JFK Airport for its battery-powered air taxis. Skyports Infrastructure is upgrading the Downtown Skyport to accommodate electric aircraft. And while it\u2019s likely years off, Google parent Alphabet is already looking to bring its Wing <\/a>consumer-delivery service to the five boroughs. \u201cSay it\u2019s Taco Tuesday night, and you\u2019ve forgotten the ground beef. We\u2019re going to be the fastest way to get you that ground beef, so that you can continue preparing dinner for your kids,\u201d says Heather Rivera, Wing\u2019s chief business officer, who lives in New York.<\/p>\n

The technology is here, these companies say. It\u2019s just a matter of figuring out how to make it work in a city that offers both the biggest opportunities in terms of market size and what may be the nation\u2019s toughest challenges in actually getting it off the ground. (You can\u2019t even fly a drone in this town without multiple permits.) \u201cWe have the most complicated transportation system, with the most stakeholders, and many different layers\u00a0of regulation \u2014 federal, state, and local,\u201d says Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority, one of the many agencies that will be determining what the city\u2019s skies will look like decades from now. \u201cBut \u2014 and this is to quote a classic line \u2014 \u2018if any of these folks can make it here, they can make it anywhere.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Back at the Downtown Skyport<\/a>, as helicopters whisked tourists off on sightseeing tours and a Blackhawk military chopper landed for a training exercise, Robbie Ladov, U.S. general manager for Skysports Infrastructure<\/a>, was giving a tour of the terminal. The two-acre facility, owned by the city and operated by Downtown Skyport, is the busiest commercial heliport in the world, hosting up to 200 flights a day. But until recently, it was also among the most outdated. When Skyports took over from the previous operator last year, \u201call of the paperwork \u2014 the billing, passenger logs, fuel logs, fuel receipts \u2014 was completely done by hand,\u201d says Ladov.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Skyport Infrastructure\u2019s Robbie Ladov is overseeing upgrades at the downtown heliport.
\n Photo: Anne Kadet\n <\/p>\n

Skyports computerized the records, remodeled the 1980s-era terminal, upgraded the radio operations center, installed a pilots lounge, and redid the security systems, all of which brought the heliport up-to-date. But Ladov is most excited about the next step. Later this year, Skyports will enable electric charging at three parking stations to create the city\u2019s first vertiport \u2014 a landing pad for flying taxis. Right now, few New Yorkers can afford to commute by helicopter, says Ladov. But the new electric aircrafts are not only quieter, they cost less to build, use cheaper fuel, and are easier to maintain. \u201cThey\u2019re really going to open the market for vertical-lift transportation to the masses,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Known in the industry as eVTOLs (for electric vertical takeoff and landing), these small winged vehicles, which typically carry four passengers, fly like an airplane but take off and land like a helicopter, so they don\u2019t need a runway. That means a vertiport can be built just about anywhere. And because eVTOLs are much quieter than helicopters (\u201cLike a high-powered fan,\u201d says Ladov), the technology\u2019s backers hope they\u2019ll be able to run more flights, between more locations, for longer periods of the day, without arousing community resistance.<\/p>\n

Skyports is already building a network of vertiports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but New York was an obvious U.S. entry point, says Ladov, because the basic infrastructure is already largely in place. The region offers three major and four regional airports along with three commercial heliports that could all easily double as vertiports. Ladov envisions building additional vertiports around the region so that folks living in, say, Montclair, New Jersey, could hitch a ride in an air taxi for their daily commute. But there\u2019s also potential for air-taxi trips within the city: \u201cThere are plenty of days where the traffic on the FDR is so bad, where it would make perfect sense to take a flying taxi\u00a0from the West Side of Manhattan to the East Side of Manhattan,\u201d he says. And how many vertiports might we see decades from now? \u201cI\u2019d hope hundreds,\u201d says Ladov. \u201cI\u2019d hope every major building would have a vertiport on it or near it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Skyports and other facility developers are literally laying the groundwork, companies large and small are busy developing the new aircraft. The furthest along may be Joby Aviation, which flew its electric air taxi, designed for short trips, on a series of demonstration flights this spring between JFK and Manhattan\u2019s three heliports (travel time: ten minutes). Joby is eyeing New York as an initial launch market because the city already has an established pool of flyers commuting to work or traveling to the airport from Manhattan by helicopter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Joby Aviation flew its electric taxi over the city in April.
\n Photo: Joby\n <\/p>\n

Last year, Joby acquired Blade<\/a>, a local helicopter service offering flights to JFK, Newark, Westchester, and the Hamptons, starting at $195 per seat. Over time, it plans to replace the helicopters with its flying taxis. <\/strong>While Blade serves about 90,000 passengers a year, the new aircraft could serve many more, says Joby\u2019s chief product officer, Eric Allison, who previously worked at Uber. A flight will initially cost about the same per-seat-mile as an Uber Black ride, he says, but over time, it will cost the same as a standard rideshare. \u201cWith this aircraft we\u2019re building, we can transform this into something that is more accessible, that is more ubiquitous, that people can use on a daily basis. Our goal is to see it replace lots of car trips,\u201d says Allison.<\/p>\n

Joby will soon launch the first commercial flights for its electric taxis in Dubai. The company still needs federal approval for its aircraft before it can launch in the States, but it\u2019s a matter of years, not decades, says Allison: \u201cThe industry has been talking about this for a really long time, but we\u2019re on the cusp now of this actually being real, and so that\u2019s the exciting thing. This is going from science fiction to science reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mountain View, California\u2013based Wisk<\/a>, a subsidiary of Boeing, may be operating a bit deeper in science-fiction territory. It\u2019s developed a four-seat flying taxi that needs no pilot. The autonomous flights will be monitored by a supervisor in a ground-based operations center, overseeing several aircraft at a time. This gives the service a huge cost advantage over manned aircraft, says JC Asencio, the company\u2019s senior manager of commercial integration. When there\u2019s no pilot aboard, you not only save money on labor, you free up an extra seat, producing a dramatic reduction in fares. \u201cWe <\/strong>saw that autonomy was really the path to a more affordable price point.\u201d says Asencio. \u201cThat\u2019s why our mission statement is \u2018safe, everyday flight for everyone,\u2019 and we always harp on that \u2018everyone\u2019 point.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Wisk Aero\u2019s autonomous air taxi seats four passengers \u2014 and zero pilots.
\n Photo: Wisk Aero\/ALL RIGHTS RESERVED\n <\/p>\n

Wisk is developing different market strategies for different cities. New York is a great market for shorter routes that have a lot of demand, like Manhattan to JFK at rush hour, says Asencio. But the routes will depend, of course, on where vertiports are located. New York\u2019s lack of space and strict zoning laws sharply limit the options, at least for now, but Asencio envisions new vertiports appearing on places like piers and the roofs of parking garages.<\/p>\n

Wisk\u2019s timeline is far more conservative than Joby\u2019s. <\/strong>While it has been flight testing its \u201cGen 6\u201d aircraft in California, \u201cwe want to have our aircraft certified by the end of the decade, by 2030,\u201d Asencio says. \u201cThat\u2019s when we plan to go into launch markets like Houston, Miami, and L.A.\u201d These cities will likely come first because they offer more open skies and a friendlier regulatory environment. \u201cNew York is a market we would love to go to, because it\u2019s the Big Apple, but when you\u2019re looking at the airspace, it\u2019s just very congested,\u201d says Ascensio. \u201cOnce we build that confidence, we can bring it to a great city like New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most folks in the eVTOL community envision a tightly regulated New York where air taxis operate within strict flight-path controls similar to those imposed on airplanes and helicopters, and hours are restricted. In deference to nearby communities, for example, the Downtown Skyport shuts down at 9 p.m. and has limited weekend hours. Even LaGuardia Airport closes between midnight and 5 a.m.<\/p>\n

But some envision a city skyscape straight out of The Jetsons. In San Mateo, California, Alef Aeronautics<\/a> has designed a working prototype of an electric car that drives on the road, but, when it gets stuck in traffic, can ascend vertically into the air and cruise through the sky. Co-founder and CEO Jim Dukhovny says the company\u2019s Model A Ultralight can be legally flown without a pilot\u2019s license in unpopulated areas. He has more than 3,500 preorders for the $300,000 vehicle, which will go into production within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

\n Alef’s flying car can drive on the road and fly like a plane.\n <\/p>\n

In the future, says Dukhovny, flying cars will be as ubiquitous in the skies of New York as ordinary cars are now \u2014 with none of the congestion that clogs our streets. Up in the sky, he says, \u201cyou can have a second lane, a third lane, a fourth lane. You can have the traffic never stop because your two lanes are never crossing each other. You can add 100 to 1,000 to a million more times the cars that you have on the ground right now. You will have something like what Hollywood was showing us, like The Fifth Element!\u201d<\/p>\n

If Skyports is planning on ferrying medical supplies and sensitive documents between businesses, vertiport to vertiport, what about your cappuccino? Right now, most New Yorkers can get their Starbucks delivered in 15 minutes by e-bike \u2014 after all the foam has dissolved. Wing, a delivery service already operating in four cities, says it has a better solution: It can deliver your coffee, fries, or piping-hot pizza in a five-minute drone flight.<\/p>\n

Wing\u2019s white-and-yellow drones, developed in-house, can carry packages weighing up to five pounds, says chief business officer Heather Rivera. With a five- to six-foot wingspan, they are quieter than an idling truck and typically fly 150 to 200 feet up in the sky. To deliver their cargo, they descend to a height about 20 feet from the ground, lower the box on a tether, and release the package. They need a clear space the size of a picnic blanket to make a delivery, says Rivera. In cities like Atlanta and Houston, where Wing has partnered with Walmart, drones typically pick up packages in the store parking lot and deliver them to the recipients\u2019 backyards. Wing says it has made more than 1 million deliveries to date.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Wing\u2019s chief business officer, Heather Rivera, is excited to bring drone delivery to New York.
\n Photo: Anne Kadet\n <\/p>\n

In Manhattan, of course, few stores have parking lots, and hardly anyone has a yard. This is why the suburban outskirts of the outer boroughs may be the first to get drone delivery service, says Rivera. But it won\u2019t stop there. \u201cWe really believe that Wing is absolutely the technology solution that\u2019s right for New York,\u201d she says. \u201cNew Yorkers are going to say, \u2018I\u2019ve been getting stuff via 15-minute delivery for years now. What do you have to offer?\u2019 We want to make sure that we\u2019ve got a great answer to that question when we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For one, she says, Wing\u2019s autonomous drones are able to detect and avoid other aircraft, making them ideal for navigating New York\u2019s crowded airspace. They can also hover outside a storefront to accept a delivery and then deposit a package on a stoop, the roof of an apartment building, or perhaps even lower it by tether to a customer\u2019s window. While they cruise through the sky at up to 60 miles per hour, they only land when they need to power up on charging pads that Wing refers to as nests. The estimated 100-odd nests necessary to maintain a citywide network could be installed just about anywhere. They would, of course, work with the city on where those locations would be, adds Rivera.<\/p>\n

Wing is planning to launch in 270 locations nationwide by 2027, and so far, New York isn\u2019t included. Nor has Wing started discussions with local officials, which is quite intentional. \u201cWe want to make sure we approach the city at the right time,\u201d says Rivera. \u201cWhen we approach New York, we will do it from a position of having proved this technology in lots of different types of operating environments. When we arrive in New York, we can say, \u2018You can be confident that we can do it here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n A Wing delivery drone landing on a \u201cnest\u201d charging pad.
\n Photo: Wing\/AP Content Services for Wing Drone Delivery\n <\/p>\n

The obvious concern about all of these airborne ambitions, of course, is that in the quest to off-load its transportation burden to the heavens, the city will wind up with a sky as noisy, congested, and dangerous as its streets are today. And the outcome largely depends on the rules \u2014 yet to be written \u2014\u00a0by the tangle of agencies with jurisdiction over what goes on overhead, including the FAA, the U.S. and state DoTs, the Port Authority (which controls the airports), and the city.<\/p>\n

Garcia, the Port Authority director, says she believes the new aerial technologies can relieve traffic congestion, make deliveries more efficient, and help people move about the region more freely \u2014 and it\u2019s important to be on the cutting edge. \u201cWe see this as a fundamental way to think about our competitive advantage against other locations, not only in the United States but literally in the world,\u201d she says. Then there\u2019s the opportunity to reduce helicopter traffic, one of the city\u2019s worst noise offenders. \u201cI may never ride in an eVTOL taxi, just because I\u2019m not that fancy,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if it could be quieter in my neighborhood, that would make me very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Garcia doesn\u2019t foresee a sky crowded with air taxis and drones crisscrossing overhead. \u201cWe are not thinking we\u2019re going to be doing point-to-point individual delivery,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be much more like creating little highways.\u201d At least initially, new flights will largely be confined to existing routes and landing zones. The Port Authority has earmarked $150 million to create vertiports in the region\u2019s three major airports, for example. And commercial deliveries will likely be confined to hubs earmarked for drones rather than going straight to the recipient\u2019s door, \u201cbecause that does parallel the congestion of what we see on the streets today,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone wants to end up in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a flying electric taxi from Manhattan to JFK? A drone delivering a factory part in minutes when the line breaks down? That\u2019s not so far away. \u201cI don\u2019t know if we are quite at George Jetson yet, though I look forward to it,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cAnd we are closer than we were.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n See All<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One flying car company says New York\u2019s Skies could one day look like a scene from The Fifth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":879166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9297,5755,357256,67575,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,522,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-879165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-cityscape","tag-drones","tag-electric-helicopters","tag-getting-around","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-transportation","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116779118252760855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}