The “vertiport” is scheduled to be completed in 2025 in Orlando, which granted more than $800,000 in potential tax rebates to Lilium, a German aviation company that plans to build and operate the hub.
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- In an announcement that drew immediate comparisons to “The Jetsons,” the city of Orlando, Fla., and a German aviation company formally unveiled plans on Wednesday to build the first hub for flying cars in the United States.
The 56,000-square-foot transportation hub, shown for the first time in renderings and in a video simulation, resembles an airport terminal. Think Eero Saarinen.
The so-called vertiport is scheduled to be completed in 2025 and will enable passengers to bypass Florida’s notoriously congested highways, the city and the hub’s developers contend.
But is the ambitious project, intended to introduce Lilium’s flying taxis as a more time-efficient if costlier alternative to ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, viable? There is a caveat: The aircraft are still in the developmental phase.
Orlando officials don’t seem to be dissuaded by that uncertainty. On Monday, the City Council approved more than $800,000 in potential tax rebates to Lilium.
Buddy Dyer, the city’s longtime mayor, framed the project as a transformational one in a statement on Wednesday.
“For this new technology to truly reshape the transportation ecosystem and benefit Orlando residents long-term, it is going to take a true partnership between cities, developers and transportation operators,” Mr. Dyer said. “We have been focused on finding the right partners to be a global leader in the advanced air mobility space.”