Photo credit: Karl Solano
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
Nearly a year ago, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that Manhattan’s Downtown Heliport will soon house electric helicopters, marketed as quieter than conventional ones. Ramsey Khalifeh informs us in this Gothamist article that tech company Joby will introduce electric helicopter service from the Downtown Heliport to JFK Airport. The helicopter will seat four passengers and a pilot. The price of this helicopter will be around the same as an Uber for price per seat, but Joby executives have stated they hope to lower this price in the future.
Joby intends to debut the new electric helicopters by the end of 2025, pending Federal Aviation Administration approval. The company’s website states that the helicopter will sound “as quiet as a conversation.” Joby engineers also tried to make the aircraft “quiet enough to land in your neighborhood.”
Some comments below the article question the sound level, and others state they do not want helicopters over their homes. We will simply have to wait for the helicopters’ debut to determine how quiet they really are.
