On a wing and a prayer: Brisbane air taxi scheme aims for launch before Olympics
A consortium that has just included Archerfield Airport into its ranks is aiming at having air taxis for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
Greenbird director Keith Tonkin said the 2032 Olympics provided a deadline and a point of leverage for industry attraction.
“If action is taken now Australia could see the deployment of electric vertical take-off and landing operations as early as 2024, with early commercialisation in 2026, early autononomous operations in 2032 and full ecosystem maturity expected around 2035,” he said.
The Greenbird consortia now includes Griffith University, Nautilus Aviation, Skyports, Aviator Group and Ecosystem Partners and led by AVISTRA.
Archerfield’s role would be as a base of operations for the aircraft and Greenbird has been established to help build the entire ecosystem for what would be an entirely new industry.
It aims to have sustainable, autonomous hydrogen and electric air mobility operations “in Queensland and beyond”, reducing emissions and congestion and its aim is for piloted craft rather than autonomous ones, which were likely to be operating further down the track.
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AVISTA’s Sara Hales said the missing piece was a vision and strategy for the Queensland sector.
She said there were about 400 different types of aircraft in development around the world and about 12 to 15 that were flying and seeking certification.
Commercial operations were expected to occur somewhere in the world as early as next year.
The likely design would be about the size of a car.
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Archerfield general manager Rod Parry said the airport supported the growth of new and emerging technology and “opens its doors to the possibility of urban air mobility”.
“Our collaboration with Greenbird aligns with our objectives for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics,” he said.
The industry now talks about advanced air mobility which is essentially transitioning the new technology into existing operations.
Griffith University joined to give access to its researchers to analyse future transport needs.
In December, Nautilus announced it would be taking 10 eVTOL aircraft to replace its helicopter fleet running flights to the Great Barrier Reef. They were expected to be in operation in 2026.
