London — The Paris Air Show is a showcase of the aviation industry’s extremes. Alongside billion-dollar deals, this year’s expo features flying robo-taxis, killer drones and a bid to revive Concorde-style supersonic travel. Here are some highlights from the biggest gathering of "air heads" this year, which runs until Sunday. Air taxi Airbus’s A3 Silicon Valley think-tank unveiled further details of its proposed Vahana flying taxi. The pilotless, electric-powered helicopter could be hailed like a conventional cab, but won’t get stuck in traffic jams like the ones that clogged the roadways to and from the Le Bourget airfield that is hosting the show. The single-person flying machine could slash journey times for city dwellers over a range of 50 miles, Airbus reckons. But don’t delete your Uber app just yet; Airbus admits the project needs further refinements to automation and sense-and-avoid technology. And just in case all that fails the vehicle would be equipped with a ballistic par...
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