Kittyhawk, the air-taxi firm backed by billionaire Google co-founder Larry Web page, can be closing down, dealing a setback to the long-elusive dream of creating flying vehicles.

“We’re nonetheless engaged on the small print of what is subsequent,” the corporate stated on Twitter final week.

The corporate’s expertise is predicted to reside on within the type of its Wisk Aero three way partnership with airplane maker Boeing, which invested $450 million within the partnership. Wisk’s operations will not be affected by Kittyhawk’s shutdown, Boeing stated.

Kittyhawk was based in 2010 to pioneer the marketplace for eVTOLs — electrical vertical takeoff and touchdown plane — with the lofty aim of democratizing the skies. The secretive firm was run by Sebastian Thrun, a Google veteran who labored on self-driving vehicles, augmented actuality glasses and different tasks.

The enterprise was one among a number of startups engaged on the idea, which has confirmed to be a larger problem than some anticipated. Air taxis have crashed throughout testing in latest months, elevating considerations about their security.

Kittyhawk’s aim was to make an air taxi that may very well be remotely piloted, was smaller and lighter than different eVTOLs, and will take off from practically wherever. The corporate was focusing on a value of lower than $1 a mile, which might have made the taxis cheaper than ride-sharing providers.

Its shutdown reveals how onerous the market is to crack. As of late final week, the corporate nonetheless had this message on its house web page: “If anybody can do that, we will.”