INTC Intel Corporation

By Andrew Tangel 

Boeing Co. said its prototype for an autonomous air taxi completed a first test flight, heating up a race among aerospace companies hoping to transform urban transit.

Boeing competitors including Airbus SE and Textron Inc.'s helicopter unit Bell are also developing autonomous flying taxis to transport passengers around cities. Tech giants such as Intel Corp. and ride-sharing specialist Uber Technologies Inc. are investing in those and other projects to put urban passengers into to the skies.

It's not clear when such vehicles might enter regular use. The air taxis and the software that runs them would face rounds of testing and signoff from municipal and safety officials. Obtaining such approvals could take years.

Recent flight stops involving remote-controlled drones have highlighted potential for such vehicles to interfere with existing commercial aviation traffic.

Each of the autonomous-taxi vehicles under development generally takes off and lands like a small helicopter that could carrying a handful of passengers. They would shuttle passengers between predetermined sites, such as building rooftops.

Boeing said its electric-powered concept demonstrator, designed to have a range of 50 miles, flew for the first time on Tuesday in Manassas, Va. The 30-foot-long, 28-foot-wide aircraft took off, hovered and landed, the company said. Boeing didn't say how long the flight lasted.

Future tests of the vehicle would attempt forward flight, and a challenging transition phase between vertical and forward flight modes, Boeing said.

Attempts to test self-driving cars in cities have also faced setbacks, raising questions about their readiness for widespread public use.

Last year, a self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona. The company halted its Arizona test operations and suspended test-driving autonomous vehicles on public roads elsewhere.

Still, industry leaders predict flying cars and taxis will become part of the urban transit mix sooner than skeptics expect.

"These vehicles are going to start flying around in the next few years," Greg Hyslop, Boeing's chief technology officer, said at an air show in July 2018. "I don't think we're talking decades."

Bell, which is working with Uber, unveiled a full-scale design of its air taxi earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Airbus has invested in several air taxi concepts and last year flew one called Vahana for the first time.

Guillaume Faury, the head of commercial aircraft who is due to become Airbus CEO in April, said he expected demand to come initially from premium customers traveling between airports and downtown business districts.

"There is a need for mobility in megacities," he said.

--Robert Wall and Doug Cameron contributed to this article.

Write to Andrew Tangel at Andrew.Tangel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2019 08:34 ET (13:34 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.