Nairobi has been selected as the only African city to form part of an innovative flying taxi pilot, which could drastically alleviate traffic congestion.

According to iAfrikan, the McFly blockchain project is set to develop infrastructure to support the launch of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) urban flying taxi service in 23 cities worldwide.

Numerous heliports will be constructed, and commuters will be picked up and dropped off at their nearest landing pads – a 5 to 10-minute walk from their location or destination. Customers will be required to install an app, request a flight and make payment (US$8) in McFly tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. ‘The VTOL autonomy will be implemented over time as users and regulators become more comfortable with the technology,’ says Nikolay Bezhko, McFly lead community manager.

The vehicles are projected to have a flight time of 30 minutes cruising at a speed of 150 km/h to 300km/h with a maximum flying height of 1000m above the ground. The first test flights are scheduled to take place between this month and May.

20 March 2018
Image: McFly