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But that didn’t prevent him from hiring away many of the key players at Wisk and Airbus’ Vahana, including Tom Muniz, who ran engineering at Wisk and is now chief operating officer at Archer; and Geoffrey Bower, who was chief engineer at Vahana and now holds that same title at Archer.

The company also hired engineers away from Airbus’ Vahana project.

Airbus-backed Vahana, German startup Lilium and US firm Bell Helicopter – partnered with ride-hailing firm Uber – are among the companies trying to bring air taxis to market, targeting congested journeys such as connections from airports in cities such as New York.

Uber itself unveiled a very different-looking concept model earlier this year, while Airbus is developing its autonomous Vahana craft.

Airbus has invested in several air-taxi concepts and last year flew one called Vahana for the first time, with its CityAirbus variant due to make its maiden flight this year.