The term “flying car” or officially, the “personal aircraft” is nothing more than a fantasy to most people, understandably so. However, there are a bunch of startups and even big companies working on them, and they all want you to take them seriously.
Aston Martin revealed the Volante Vision concept last week. President and CEO Andy Palmer went on to say that the cities will continue to get congested and “we need to look at alternative solutions”.
Uber’s concept electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs)
While the Aeromobil and Geely-backed Terrafugia are literally flying cars, most other companies are developing electric drones that have VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) capability. China’s Ehang, Audi-Airbus’ upcoming air-taxi project and even Uber’s VTOL concept, to name a few. Uber is even dreaming of a futuristic uberAIR Skyport network.
Are the cities of the future going to be so congested that one would require a “flying car” to get around? Google’s Larry Page appears to think so. Last month, we saw the Kitty Hawk Flyer which is now accepting pre-orders. This month, another company backed by Page was discovered by the media, and they even issued a press release admitting the same. “Larry Page is one of the company’s strategic backers,” the Opener said in its statement.
Verge reports that Page’s interest in flying cars dates back to 2010 when he funded Levt Inc., a company started by Stanford University Professor Ilan Kroo. Levt changed to Zee.Aero and then to Cora, which now belongs to Kitty Hawk – a company led by Sebastian Thrun – one of the founders of X (formerly Google X).
The BlackFly is a single-seater personal aircraft with 8 electric motors. Its carbon fibre structure can hold up to a 12 kWh battery pack which gets a 40+ mile (64+ km) range. Cruising speed in the US is limited to 62 mph (100 km/h) while others can enjoy 80+ mph or 130 km/h. The design makes it amphibious-capable as well.
Opener claims up to 80% charge in 25 minutes. A Ballistic Parachute System (BPS) is optional.
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