I’d want to see the real thing, but I suppose that wasn’t practical under the circumstances.
Saemi Poelma eagerly posed for a photo Tuesday inside a model autonomous air taxi, impressed by the possibility of a new way of traveling without a human pilot.
“This is something that we all imagined as kids,” Poelma said.
The sleek, self-flying aircraft drew a crowd of curious onlookers at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Wisk Aero, a California-based air mobility company, showcased the air taxi at the 2025 Xponential Conference. The company plans to establish the transit in the greater Houston area by the end of the decade.
Wisk signed a 12-month agreement with the Houston Airport System and the city of Sugar Land last year to support the strategic planning efforts needed to launch the new form of air transportation.
Wisk’s collaboration with Houston Airports and Sugar Land consisted of identifying and assessing potential locations for developing infrastructure for air taxi operations at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, William P. Hobby Airport, Ellington Airport and Sugar Land Regional Airport.
“I do believe that with this new technology in the aviation industry, people are going to be able to travel to farther places quicker, and it’ll also help alleviate some of that traffic,” said Elizabeth Rosenbaum, assistant city manager of the city of Sugar Land, who also attended the convention.
Wisk also plans to extend the agreements with both cities, according to Emilien Marchand, director of ecosystems partnerships.
[…]
The company revealed proposed flight pathways to the Houston Chronicle, showing six vertiport locations in the Houston area and nine routes.
Marchand said Wisk has been collaborating with the Houston Airports and the Federal Aviation Administration to determine the best places to land the aircraft without affecting commercial traffic.
“No routes have yet been approved by the FAA,” he said.
Wisk offered attendees a chance to wear virtual reality headsets to simulate riding in the aircraft traveling from the center to IAH. From the sky, attendees could see Daikin Park and the nearby Marriott Hotel in downtown Houston.
The virtual experience also showed examples of how the vertiport would look on top of the center or near the airport during landing or takeoff.
See here, here, and here for some background. Wisk is not the only eVTOL aiming to operate in Houston, but they were there providing their virtual rides, so they get the story. I don’t know how convincing a virtual reality demo ride is – I mean, you can take a VR ride on the Millennium Falcon at Disneyland – but it’ll have to do for now.