Soar across Dubai skies in Uber's brand new flying taxis - for less than the price of a black cab ride in London

Hitting speeds of nearly 1,200mph, David ‘Skittles’ Ash was once accustomed to the roar of F/A-18 Super Hornets. So one hopes the dashing ex-US fighter pilot’s latest aircraft is a rather more sedate ride.

We are in a hangar in the Dubai desert where our host is showing off Uber’s latest mode of transport: the all-new electric flying taxi.

Having dominated roads, this is all part of the US tech giant’s ambitions to take over the skies, too.

Launching later this year – in theory – four passengers at a time will be whisked at up to 200mph between ‘vertiports’ with the fares set at no more than rides in Uber’s fancier cars.

For tourists keen to hit the beach, it would cut the 20-mile journey from Dubai Airport to the high-end hotels on Palm Jumeirah – which can take over an hour by road – to 11 minutes.

‘It’s just a joy to fly,’ says Skittles, 37. ‘I’ve tried over 50 types of aircraft in my career and the sign of a really good one, to me, is to forget I’m flying – it becomes like an extension of all your senses. This one’s like putting on a tailored suit or a really well-fitting glove.’

Jim Norton heads to Dubai to take a ride in Uber's first electric air taxis - where he flies across the desert for less than the price of a black cab

Well, I’ll have to take his word for it because I’m not allowed to try it. Joby, the Californian start-up behind the aircraft, has not yet received regulatory sign-off for passengers.

Instead, I’ve been brought here to witness a live test flight. Uber has been working on this Jetson-like flying taxi for more than a decade – and, take a deep breath, its ultimate ambition is pilotless flights.

‘An average commuter spends 93 hours stuck in traffic every year – that’s about 12 days of your life,’ says Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer. ‘But you can’t just build more roads, you can’t just start driving fast. You have to change the way that cities move.’

Los Angeles, New York and London are lined up next. But first, Dubai. And in the desert heat, we watch as six propellers begin to whir lifting the aircraft around 20ft before accelerating forward quickly.

Soon, the taxi is just a dot in the sky. As it loops back around and over us, Joby chief product officer Eric Allison explains that, at around 80mph, the cells holding the propellers rotate from their upright helicopter-like position to face forward in ‘cruise mode’.

The flying taxi passes us again, though at a lower altitude. In practice, Allison says it will fly at 1,500ft to 2,000ft, which sounds high but given Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest skyscraper – is 2,722ft, I’m hoping Skittles has his wits about him.

With four high-voltage batteries, the taxis can travel up to 100 miles on a single charge. However, the idea is to focus on short city flights, with fast recharges and quick turnarounds.

Dubai is the first destination that will see Uber's Jetson-like taxis take to the skies

The taxi looks pretty stable. And as Skittles skilfully banks the aircraft for another fly-by, one thing you notice is how quiet it is – 100 times quieter than a helicopter, explains Allison.

So what’s it like when you’re up there?

‘It powers through the air seamlessly,’ says Skittles. ‘It’s very quiet inside – though not so quiet you get worried things aren’t running properly.’

And for nervous flyers? ‘You still get turbulence,’ Skittles admits. ‘But the computers on board think thousands of times faster than I can.

They dampen the atmospheric perturbations every millisecond by adjusting the inputs to the ailerons, the rudders, the pitch and RPM of the propellers.’ In short, he says, noticing my confused frown, ‘it’s a comfortable ride’.

Inside, the cabin has panoramic windows and will be fitted like a high-end car with plush brown leather seats.

Ex-US fighter pilot David 'Skittles' Ash compares the experience to riding in a Bentley or a Porsche

‘It’ll feel like a Porsche or a Bentley,’ says Skittles, though the prototype I sit in seems more rudimentary. Uber does not want to make it exclusive to wealthy customers, hence prices are the same as booking an ‘Uber Black’ car, which from Dubai Airport to Palm Jumeirah typically costs £40.

Four ‘vertiport’ landing sites have been selected, including the marina and downtown. All that will be required is to click on the app’s ‘Uber Air’ option. In future, tourists may also be able to fly to hotels with vertiports in car parks and on rooftops.

‘We designed it specifically to be able to do that,’ says Allison. Until there are more drop-off points, Uber will provide an ‘end-to-end service’ where a car will collect passengers, deliver them to a vertiport and then take them onward by car after landing.

So when will pilotless flights begin? Uber is coy on suggesting a date.

Is Skittles worried about losing his job if they go pilotless?

‘We’re not there yet,’ he replies with a wide grin. ‘We’re gonna have pilots well into the future, so my job is secure. But for sure, it’s coming.’