Engineers Earn NASA Grant to Enable Flying Taxis Imagine fleets of small aircraft able to vertically take off and land from helipads in urban areas, transporting people to and from work; or shuttles with preset routes flying people to the airport or other major hubs. This futuristic system of flying taxis and shuttles is one step closer to reality thanks to a team of engineers led by the University of California San Diego. They received a $5.8 million University Leadership Initiative grant from NASA to create computational design tools that will help US companies develop more efficient air taxi designs, faster.