{"id":59040,"date":"2025-11-14T20:18:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59040"},"modified":"2025-11-14T20:18:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:18:57","slug":"suntrax-in-polk-county-will-be-the-nations-first-testing-hub-for-air-taxis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/11\/14\/suntrax-in-polk-county-will-be-the-nations-first-testing-hub-for-air-taxis\/","title":{"rendered":"SunTrax in Polk County will be the nation\u2019s first testing hub for \u2018Air Taxis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by: Archer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Flying taxis will soon be offering Tampa Bay drivers relief from traffic congestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a rideshare, but in the air, and it\u2019s being tested at the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) SunTrax facility in Auburndale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FDOT said it will be the nation\u2019s first Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) test track. The department discussed the operational timeline with the Polk County Board of County Commissioners on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe have all felt the woes of traveling on I-4, and this truly starts to open up a network highway of aerial highways. So, with this research and if it comes to life which I’m sure it will, it will be a new way of travel for us here in Polk County,\u201d said Commissioner Becky Troutman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FDOT is in the first phase of the SunTrax campus expansion, which will expand the facility\u2019s capabilities for research and development for Advanced Air Mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The construction of a vertiport or landing hub was just completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese vehicles take off straight up, so you don’t have to have a runway. It doesn’t require a lot of land. You would order your autonomous vehicle to come pick you up, lift you in the sky and take you a short distance,\u201d Troutman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are battery-powered and designed to go within a 60 mile distance. FDOT said a passenger terminal building has also been built, and an additional vertiport is now under construction \u2014 which will allow for an aerial test track. Some drivers are worried about logistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I think is going to be unique is how and where does it stop? And how do you pay for it? And what does it cost?\u201d said Josh Palmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phase 2 of the expansion will begin in February, and that includes nine additional hangers, 3000-foot runway and more vertiports.<\/p>\n\n\n

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FDOT is also working to establish Florida\u2019s Aerial Highway Network. This will pinpoint the key locations where “air taxis” will go first. The department is focusing first on the I-4 corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith all the people coming into the state of Florida, it’s getting overpopulated. Traffic is crazy everywhere. You have to allow for a lot of time when you leave your house to get where you need to be at a certain time. So, it may help,\u201d said Rex Herring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FDOT\u2019s goal is to have commercial vehicles take flight in late 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Flying taxis will soon be offering Tampa Bay drivers relief from traffic congestion. It is a rideshare, but in the air, and it\u2019s being tested at the Florida Department of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTFcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiU3VuVHJheCBpbiBQb2xrIENvdW50eSB3aWxsIGJlIHRoZSBuYXRpb25cdTIwMTlzIGZpcnN0IHRlc3RpbmcgaHViIGZvciBcdTIwMThBaXIgVGF4aXNcdTIwMTkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.8VelyjYkmDON95gVOXTLYN-b-KWViBdrR_qHQr0m6UUMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59041,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/download-1-1.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[12573],"class_list":["post-59040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-suntrax-in-polk-county-will-be-the-nations-first-testing-hub-for-air-taxis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59045,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59040\/revisions\/59045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}