Boeing Co. hopes one day you can ditch the terrestrial street traffic and fly through the clouds in your own airborne vehicle.
The Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer and Porsche, the German sports car automaker, announced a partnership Thursday to study the air mobility market. The companies will also work on a prototype for an electric vehicle capable of takeoff and landing, although Boeing and Porsche say it will take some time for a flying car to be mass produced.
Boeing spokesman Adam Mertz said the new partnership will focus on air traffic and regulations. Before a flying car is seen in the skies, Boeing and Porsche must get through the regulatory hurdles of air traffic management for smaller aircraft vehicles.
"It's also about how do you use technology to create a safe intersection of vehicles. Boeing is going to be looking at a new air traffic management system, which is one of the pieces that needs to solved," Mertz said.
Porsche spokewoman Nadescha Vornehm said in an email that an international team of experts from both companies will work on the research from Germany, Switzerland and St. Louis, where Boeing subsidiary NeXt is developing airborne vehicles. Vornehm said Porsche will be responsible for designing the prototype's body.
Boeing and Porsche are researching ways to create a product that will someday be marketable, but neither is committed to producing a commercial vehicle.
The partnership announced Thursday is far from the only flying car effort underway. The Japanese government enlisted help last year from Uber Technologies and Boeing to create a flying car system in that country. Uber has also talked of one day taking its ride-hailing service to the sky through Uber Elevate, the company's air transportation unit.
The urban air mobility market is expected to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2040, according to estimates from Morgan Stanley analysts.
