It’s not a helicopter: can this electric aircraft transform New York air travel?

It’s neither a bird nor a plane, and it is vehemently not a helicopter, but instead this week some New Yorkers witnessed an “electric vertical takeoff and landing” aircraft buzzing around the city, which developers say could revolutionize travel in New York.

Joby Aviation’s fully electric aircraft conducted multiple flights from JFK airport in Queens to Manhattan in recent days, which would have turned heads to anyone looking up. It’s a futuristic looking design, somewhere between helicopter and drone, and is capable of speeds up to 200mph.

That gets it from JFK to midtown Manhattan in about 10 minutes, compared with more than an hour in a car, and about the same on public transport. Crucially, Joby claims it is quieter than a helicopter, something which could satisfy New York’s anti-helicopter lobby and also preserve passengers’ ears.

But one of the important things to know about the Joby electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft is that it is *not *a helicopter. The company is adamant about that.

“It’s an aircraft, but that’s about the only similarities,” Eric Allison, chief product officer at Joby Aviation, told the Guardian on Monday. “It takes off and lands vertically, like a helicopter, but it has six propellers, which point up when it’s taking off and landing, and then they tilt forward to allow forward flight like an aircraft.”

People can make up their own minds about whether it looks like a helicopter or not, but Allison’s point was that the Joby uses its wings to fly as much as it does its blades. He said the fact it has six propellers makes it safer than some other options, and stressed, as the company does repeatedly, its quietness.

“When it’s taking off and landing 100 meters away from here, it’s basically blended into the background noise. And when it’s flying over a city environment, and flying over at 1,000 feet, which is about the minimum altitude, is basically silent,” Allison said.

Helicopters are common in New York. People can take non-electric helicopters to JFK – and they take about the same amount of time to get there – and at any given time tourist helicopters are flying about the sky around Manhattan. But Joby hopes their lower decibel, and more environmentally friendly offering, will be enough to transform New York air travel.

Whether those things are enough to quiet the New York groups who are fighting to reduce helicopter noise, and ban nonessential flights, remains to be seen. Stop the Chop, a grassroots non-profit group which operates in New Jersey and New York, has spent years lobbying against “incessant and loud non-essential helicopter flights over our homes, parks and open spaces detract from the urban oases residents and tourists need as a respite from busy streets”.

Certainly the eco aspect should at least partly assuage Stop the Chop – the group claims each helicopter produces 950lbs of carbon dioxide per hour (an average car produces 22lbs per hour) – whereas the Joby won’t produce any.

But after witnessing both helicopter landings and a Joby landing in recent days, it is reasonable to take issue with some of the company’s noise claims: specifically the claim that Joby aircraft’s “acoustic signature blends into the ambient sounds of everyday city life”.

When airborne, the Joby is undoubtedly quieter than a helicopter. It produces about 45 decibels, the company says, whereas helicopters produce more than 100 decibels. To put that in layman’s terms, helicopters are just really, really noisy, in a way the Joby is not. To spend time near a heliport in Manhattan is to be absolutely bombarded with noise: that noise even echoes across New York City’s boroughs to affect people hundreds of yards away.

The Joby doesn’t do that, but it does generate a significant amount of noise when it takes off and lands. The company didn’t share information on that, but it was certainly enough to make one wince – even if it nowhere near approaches the sensory assault of a regular helicopter.

The quieter sound is achieved through the multi-propeller design, the company says, and the fact it uses those wings to fly, rather than the massive rotor of a helicopter. But can this aircraft really have that much of an effect on New Yorkers?

Maybe. But it is not going to be available for quite some time: Joby is still in the process of being certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and its New York test flights this week were only allowed to take place over water.

Perhaps more pertinent information for everyday travelers is that realistically this is only going to change travel around New York for rich people. Joby says the price of a flight from Manhattan to JFK airport will be about the same as a “premium car service”. What constitutes a premium car service is up for debate, but it appears to cost a minimum of $200, compared to $11.75 on public transport.

The Joby might be quieter than a helicopter, but for now, most New Yorkers will be stuck with the subway.