Aiming for the skies before we’re even off the ground.
You know how you know you’re living in a really rich neighborhood? When the neighborhood has infrastructure for something that doesn’t even exist in a commercial capacity yet. That’ll be the case for residents of the Paramount Miami World Center, a massive 600-unit condominium that has begun construction in Miami, Florida. The World Center will feature, among what will likely be many other fancy amenities, an-honest-to-goodness skyport for personal flying vehicles.
The CEO of Paramount Miami World Center, Daniel Kodsi, said that he was inspired by the flying cars and high-rising architecture of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Jetsons. “It’s something that inspires you,” he said in a statement, “something that you think about when you’re building a project. You’re saying, ‘Well, what is the future? What’s going to happen in the future?’ We said, ‘What an opportunity to convert our sky deck into some type of ‘Jetsons,’ sky port where you can actually land passenger drones?’ And this technology exists today.”
Despite the fact that commercial flying vehicles probably won’t be a thing for at least another decade, the World Center is aiming for completion, skyport and all, by the end of 2019. The center will feature small landing pads designed to accomodate equally small vehicles, and will also, supposedly, have numerous penthouses that can be accessed from the outside. You could, in theory, exit your home and step right into a rideshare flying car. That is, if you’re not dissuaded by the possibility of a misstep followed by a thousand-foot drop.
