Originally Posted by
Winemaker
My recollection is that helicopter transport to airport(s) from atop high rise buildings in New York proved not to be a good solution. How is this different?
This is all an extension of a decades old concept called Urban Air Mobility (UAM). Recent technology breakthroughs with eVTOLS/VTOLs have merely re-emphasized this concept. One of the reasons UAM failed with helicopters was it wasn't "street-level" and had excessive noise. During the Heli-STAR ops for the Atlanta Olympics in the 90s, the street-level portion was further proven however there still was a noise issue with conventional helicopter. It was also the 1st real world test of ADSB which used the Heli-STAR helicopters and proved positive air space control in an urban environment was possible.
Given UAM has been around for so long, you'll find there are dozens of large cities globally that already have a UAM plan in place or in development. EASA and the FAA also have been working on UAM for just as long with the FAA using their Next-GEN platform for planning these infrastructures. The common factor with all these plans is that it will be street-level accessible and tie into other transport infrastructure. There are numerous reports, studies, and plans out in the public domain if you choose to read on it. Might also look for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Regional Air Mobility (RAM) titles as UAM and RAM have been restructured under AAM on an international level. The one thing most miss on this concept is that it is not to replace existing aviation modes but augment them in areas that were not or could not be serviced by those existing methods. Interesting times ahead.