Florida Airport could resemble 'The Jetsons' with flying cars

The international airport of Orlando is trying to bring a lengthy dream to bring flying cars into the region like something that they would see in the utopian future of “The Jetsons” from TV.

The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority took steps towards this future on Wednesday by looking for partners to operate a flying car landing pad at the airport. The invitation will probably be published in March with a target of 2028 for a finished product.

The airport expects the Vertiport in the East Airfield region on the northeast side or on the south side near the train station on the south side of the train station.

The airport spokesman Angela Starke said by e -mail that inviting partners will help the airport to collect information such as costs for the construction of the vertiport. The aviation authority currently has no budget for the project.

The mayor of Orlando, Buddy Dyer, a member of the aviation authority, said that the city is leading worldwide in the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) – the technology behind flying cars – and the hub at the airport makes sense.

“We imagine that the airport is a multimodal center of the future,” said Dyer. “That means expanding the sunner to the airport, from there to Tampa and ensuring that we have produced the airport as a vertihub of the future.”

He said Vertiports could help to cope with the growth of the city, but that is much further. He provides himself with a four- to six-passenger vehicle from the airport, and finally corridors for flying cars will follow. It is expected that the small aircraft consume electrical streams and take off and land vertically.

“You cannot simply have a variety at the airport, but that you have places where the vehicles can drive from the airport to downtown Orlando or Tampa,” said Dyer. “I think, before we see 'the jetsons', this is slowly developed.”

But not too slow if the mayor has his way.

After the first offort was set up at the airport in three years, he said that another in the city center would soon be a real option. Finally, he hopes to have a production facility in the city.

Orlando has been working on becoming the nation's first city for years – but earlier attempts have not made a flight.

A contract that was announced in 2020 between the German flight car company Lilium Air Mobility and the Lake Nona developer Tavistock into the city, but the excitement died for three years and nothing moved.

It was not until 2024 that the idea of ​​important actors, including the Federal Aviation Administration, was again advanced. In February of this year, Lilium announced that it would build a Vertiport hub at the airport.

While Lilium does not yet have a contract with the airport, Starke said by e -mail, the announcement of negotiations for a Vertiport hub could further postpone the project. She said the airport was working next to the FAA.

In October, the FAA took a critical step forward when it published a final rule for qualifications and training for AAM pilots and trainers. In November, the airport organized a two-day tabletop exercise that was sponsored by the FAA and focused on operating rules, aircraft certification and much more.

Dyer said the only thing that could slow down progress is the FAA.

“Much of the times depends on the development of rules and regulations of the FAA,” he said. “You are responsible for things such as the development of routes or the integration into traffic control systems that we already have at airports.

Outside of Orlando, there are also a variety and flying vehicles.

In 2023, Florida's first test flight in Tampa International Airport of an electrical vertical start and landing plane, which is generally known as EVTOLS or Electric Air Taxis.

At the beginning of this month, Jared Perdue, secretary of the Florida Ministry of Transport, pressed his support for advanced air mobility from helicopters.

And a legislative template submitted in January by Senator Gayle Harrel, R-Stuart, would provide sales tax exemptions for the sale or rental agreement for the electrical vertical start and landing plane or the flight car.