Flying cars are right up there in development

Boston-based Transcend Air Corporation's tilt-wing vertical take-off and landing six-seat city taxi.

FACT — a decade from now, hopping into a drone that you hailed using the computer in your smart glasses would be the norm in all major cities around the world.

Ten years hence, there will be as many sizes and brands of drones as there are car brands currently, with the Daimler Group one of the leading investors in this future of personal transport.

Google-basked Kitty Hawk is an air scooter that already has buyers lining up.

Google is another, with its Kitty Hawk Flyer — a single-seat drone that is billed as recreational craft for use over water, but if prototypes being built by Russians entrepreneurs are any indication, more “drone scooters” will soon buzz over built-up areas too.

The dozen drones and or flying cars unveiled to date come in one of two flavours — those that need pilot licenses, and those that don’t.

The most exciting of the drones, the Blackfly by California-based Opener, does require its pilots to pass a private pilot’s written examination.

Another is German firm Lilium’s “jet”, which has 36 ducted rotors to endow this flying car with precise, almost balletic control and a speed of 300 km/h. Lilium plans to sell this vertical lift-off plane (VTOL) in 2020 and operators will also need a pilot’s license.

Flying cars

More mainstream designs — if only because they make hovering cars as opposed to self-flying drones — are the Dutch PAL-V One; the Chinese-owned, Massachusetts-based Terrafugia corporation; and Slovakia-based AeroMobil.

These three companies have demonstrated cars with wings that require a pilot’s licence to fly, but won’t require an airport for take-off and landing and it will be licensed to drive on roads and highways.

Robot drones

Thinking bigger, Boston-based Transcend Air Corporation is working on the Vy 400 — a tilt-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) six-seater aircraft designed to ferry people in and out of cities. The company said it plans an air taxi-style commuter service to operate the aircraft by 2024.

The Vy 400 has eight propulsion systems, spread across two wings to provide multiple-failure security. It is capable of traveling 40 km on a charge at a restricted speed of 100 km/h.

The Volocopter, tested and proven intuitive flying machine.

The drone that has been most written about after successful tests over Dubai last year is the Daimler-backed Volocopter drone, which was created by Intel and German start-up Volocopter.

As with the Lilium jet, the drone has multiple redundant rotors that ensure safety and a very stable flight platform. 

The Lilium Jet successfully completed its maiden test flight series in the skies above Bavaria. The 2-seater Eagle prototype executed a range of complex maneuvers, including its signature mid-air transition from hover mode to wing-borne forward flight.

While its open rotors are a cause of concern, the Ehang's is right up there with the Volocopter after being proven over Dubai in 2017.

The Germans are competing with Chinese company Ehang’s 184 drone, which was also tested with success in Dubai in 2017, and while the open rotors have elicited many concerned comments, Ehang said the drone will be sold in 2020.

The Cora being tested in NZ.

Update - Wisk Aero start tests

After logging more than 1,200 flight tests, Wisk Aero is putting passengers in its pilotless, 13-rotor airframe called Cora. Backed by by Boeing and Kitty Hawk, the autonomous air taxi service trial will be held on the South Island of New Zealand.
The experimental Cora has a battery-limited range of around 40 km, and top speed of 160 km/h and a cruises altitude of a relatively low(460 m. Its thirteen rotors (one propelling and 12 on the wings) are much quieter than a helicopter.

Three independent flight computers and a parachute in case of total failure adds to the redundancy built into the Cora.