'People Can Actually Fly Home': Miami Developer On Construction Of America's First Jetsons-Style Flying Cars SkyPort
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Construction of America's first Jetsons-style flying cars SkyPort is nearing completion atop the 60th floor SkyDeck of a Miami high-rise. Developers of the Paramount Miami Worldcenter is billed as "America's City-within-the-City-of-The Future."
"Ever since The Jetsons animated TV cartoon aired in the mid-1960's, the world has been talking about flying cars," says Daniel Kodsi, Paramount Miami Worldcenter's CEO-Developer. "We have built the 60th floor SkyDeck pool, so its floor will rise; draining all water; and will self-convert into a take-off and landing pad."
Kodsi explains, "Via a glass-enclosed elevator, passengers will be lifted to Paramount's SkyLobby from where they will take-off and land at its SkyPort high above downtown Miami." He continues, "People can actually fly home; land on the roof and, instead of entering and exiting through a ground floor lobby, they can access their homes from the top of the building."
He forecasts, "There will be a demand for South Florida VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) air vehicle service because of the area's overly-congested highways, inner-city gridlock, and because the region's affluent population seeks this mode of transportation."
According to Kodsi, he is in talks with several VTOL air vehicle manufacturers. The multi-prop flying cars travel at top speeds of 230 miles per hour. They are more energy-efficient, eco-friendly, and quieter than helicopters.
"The technology exists today," says Kodsi. "We are just a few years away from the first flights, which could start in the 2020's, depending on regulatory issues. Meanwhile we are building for the future now. This type of transportation is inevitable and we, at Paramount Miami Worldcenter, want to remain ahead of the competition that is why we are building the SkyDeck so it can serve as a take-off and landing pad."
Workers have completed vertical construction of the 700-foot, $600-million Paramount Miami Worldcenter. They now are working-on the interiors of 524 high-rise homes; 26 of which are penthouses. The building should be completed and ready for occupancy in Spring 2019. More than 85 percent of the units are sold.
The Ritz-Carlton Residences in Miami Beach, slated to open in 2019, will also have a 'floating helipad' for jets and helicopters and drones, once available. There is also a yacht to shuttle residents to their doorsteps.
Zaha Hadid's One Thousand Museum, which rises 62 stories and is nearly complete, was the first residential building in Miami to include a private rooftop helipad doubling as an observation deck over the bay.
Uber and Airbus are building personal transport drones and developers are banking on the uber rich to use them over the skies of Miami.
Ever since UBER Elevate announced it would begin testing its urban air taxis in Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Dubai in 2020, a galactic style race erupted from tech, aircraft manufacturers and automakers both domestic and international to develop flying cars. Including the German developers of Volocopter and Lillium, Airbus's Vahana, the Chinese developers of Ehang 184 and Terrafugia, Google's Kitty Hawk Flyer and Workhorse Surefly.
