When traveling from Jersey City to Manhattan, most commuters find themselves using a PATH train, a ferry, or a bus. One man even reportedly travels from Port Liberte to Brooklyn on a jet ski. Now, could flying cars potentially be added to the mix?
Jersey Digs has learned that the Kitty Hawk Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based company, has filed plans with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) in connection with a proposal to bring its Flyer aircraft to Jersey City’s Hudson River waterfront.
Kitty Hawk submitted “waterward” and “landward” waterfront individual permit applications in August as part of its vision to develop a “temporary hangar and one temporary floating dock for the [Flyer] test pilot program,” according to NJDEP filings. The facility in question would be situated along Hudson Street, but the specific location is not yet clear.
Kitty Hawk is being funded by Google co-founder Larry Page, according to The New York Times. The company, which is working with Boeing on a similar project, describes the Flyer as being an electric vehicle for an individual to fly three to 10 feet above the water. The machine includes ten “lift fans” and Kitty Hawk says that the Flyer has already traveled more than 25,000 times.
In a statement to Jersey Digs in response to our questions regarding what the pilot program would consist of and specifically where and when it could take place, Kitty Hawk spokesperson Shernaz Daver said that “we are in the process of determining locations to offer Kitty Hawk’s Flyer vehicle as a service to consumers. New Jersey is one of the location options we are looking into. When we have more to say, we will let you know.”
Although news of this proposed Kitty Hawk pilot program in Jersey City has not been reported until now, company CEO Sebastian Thrun mentioned New Jersey’s second-largest city in a 2018 interview with The Guardian.
“If you’re in Jersey City in the morning and wish to go to Times Square, Manhattan, that might take you more than an hour in traffic,” said Thrun in the interview. “With an electric flying vehicle, you could do it in less than two minutes on perhaps 10 cents of energy costs. It would be transformational to almost every person I know.”
Jersey Digs will continue to follow this story and bring you additional information as it becomes available.
