LAYTON—Wouldn’t it be great to take a hovercraft to get to work and skip sitting in heavy traffic? It sounds like something out of the Jetsons but it could be a reality in a few years. It’s something that the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is studying to see what that would look like in the future.

“It’s very futuristic,” said Matthew Maass, Director of Aeronautics for Utah, a division of UDOT. “You can be coming from Weber and need to go to the Salt Lake Airport. It can take one to one and a half hours to get there. With an air taxi you can be there in 20 minutes. We’re actually moving people in the air.”

Passengers can go to somewhere like a TRAX station and get on a vertiport, he said. “It takes you straight up vertically like a helicopter and takes you where you’re going.”

The cost is comparative to an Uber, said Maass. “It gets you out of congestion and saves time that you can spend with your family that you don’t have to spend on the road to get to your destination.”

It’s a very exciting time in aviation, he said. “eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) is something that many companies are working on to get their aircrafts certified by the FAA over the next three to seven years.”

It’s not going to take 50 years, said Maass. “It will be in this decade if not it will be the turn of the next decade. We want to move forward wisely.”

Drone package delivery also sounds a little futuristic, but it’s actually already happening. “DroneUp started in 2016,” said DroneUp Hub Lead for Harriman, Steven Melander. “We make deliveries by drone from Walmart. It’s boxed at the store then the drone takes off. It lowers the box 80-120 feet by cable. Then it reels the cable back in and flies away.”

The drone can deliver eggs without cracking them. Courtesy video stills

It takes three people to operate, he said. “Two people pilot it to take off and deliver. The third person goes to the address in a van and watches to make sure there are no problems with other aircraft in the sky or that it doesn’t deliver it on a roof or pool.”

The winch system is very accurate, said Alec Larsen, Hub Lead of Utah in Lindon. “It's a super safe delivery. We’re not dropping a package. We make sure It’s in a safe location.”

“We can deliver eggs without them cracking,” said Melander.

DroneUp is one of two drone delivery companies in Utah, he said. “We have a vested interest in their success to help the industry grow in Utah.”

The company is tied to Walmart. “There are a lot of products that can be delivered,” Melander said. “A child might be sick at night and you need infant Tylenol. It can be there quicker. It takes about 15-20 minutes from store to house. That’s faster than the time it takes to strap kids into a car seat.”

“It’s single point delivery,” Larsen said. “It can go to apartments, condos, there’s not anybody that’s excluded within that delivery zone.”

“We want to educate the public,” Melander said. “We’d like them to see the benefit this is in people’s lives. We want to prove to the public that this can be done safely.”

“We’re working closely with DroneUP,” said Maass. “The legislature has charged the agency to advance air mobility.”

When people talk about UDOT they mainly think of roads, he said. “But it’s not just roads but a complete state system. We’re managing aircraft and airways and drone delivery corridors. UDOT is all things transportation. UDOT’s mission is keeping people moving with whatever mode of transportation. That’s what UDOT focuses on.”