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| eHang's drone can carry passengers of up to about 117 kg for 23 minutes. |
TWO giant drones that can carry two humans above the traffic jams
were proven this week.
In Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, crown prince of Dubai, flew
in the maiden concept flight of the Autonomous Air Taxi (AAT), a vehicle that
will be used for the world’s first self-flying taxi service set to be introduced
by Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority.
The two-seater, capable of transporting two people without human
intervention or a pilot, has been supplied by Volocopter, a Germany-based
specialist manufacturer.
Volocopter introduced the 2X, its latest model, at the E-Flight
Expo during the German aircraft show, Friedrichshafen Aero earlier this year.
The company said it looks forward to demonstrating its craft in
regular service as part of an agreement with the Dubai’s government’s Roads and
Transport Authority (RTA) to test mode of Autonomous Air Taxis (AAT) in the
Emirates from 2017 to 2022.
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| Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, crown prince of Dubai, flew in the maiden concept flight of the Autonomous Air Taxi (AAT) by Volocopter. |
The 2X measures about two metres in height, and the diameter of the
rotor rim, including propellers, is just over seven metres.
Volocopter built in a lot of redundancy, with 18 propellers and
nine batteries to hold the craft aloft. It has a maximum flight time of 30
minutes at a cruise speed of 50 km/h, and a maximum airspeed of 100 km/h.
In a worst case scenario, there are two parachutes, although the
drone may not always fly high enough for the chutes to deploy.
Dubai has also signed an agreement with Chinese company eHang,
which is making a single-seat drone called the 184.
eHang said its 184 will cost between R2,7 million and R4,1 million,
can carry passengers of up to about 117 kg for 23 minutes on a single charge.
Both the German X2 and Chinese 184 drones can be hailed with a
smartphone app, and will fly themselves with no input from the passengers.
Volocopter and eHang are being chased by more than a dozen
well-funded European and U.S. firms, each with its own science fiction-inspired
vision for creating a new form of urban transport that is a cross between a
driverless electric car and a short-haul, vertical takeoff-and-landing
aircraft.
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| Boeing is backing the VTOL X-Plane drone. |
Boeing this week announced it will buy Aurora Flight Sciences, a
company recently enlisted to work on Uber’s flying taxi project.
Virginia-based Aurora was awarded a defence contract to help
develop its electric VTOL X-Plane.
Uber had signed it up to work on its Uber Elevate Network earlier
this year, a bold scheme to add VTOL flying taxis to its on-demand transport
service.
Boeing hopes the acquisition will speed up its development of
autonomous, electric flying machines. “The combined strength and innovation of
our teams will advance the development of autonomy for our commercial and
military systems,” said Greg Hyslop, chief technology officer and senior vice
president of Boeing Engineering, Test and Technology. “Together, these talented
teams will open new markets with transformational technologies.”
Apart from Uber, which is still working with partners on its own
flying taxi strategy, other competitors who have made public their plans for a
flight-hailing drone service are aerospace giant Airbus, which aims to put a
self-piloting taxi in the air by 2020; and Kitty Hawk, a company backed by
Google co-founder Larry Page.
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| Google is backing the Kitty Hawk, which looks destined to be a pleasure drone. |
The Kitty Hawk is more flying bike than drone, and the current
model looks like it will require its rider to make steering inputs, much like
Russian company Hoversurf requires from riders on its Hoverbike. Both the
American Kitty Hawk and Russian Hoverbike are made for areas with large bodies
of water and look destined to be pleasure craft.
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| The hybrid Surefly next to the all-electric Workhorse. |
Made to work is the Workfly and Surefly drones, built by Workhorse, an electric transport company based in Ohio, U.S.
The 1 100 kg hybrid petrol-electric Surefly was lauched as a helicopter at this year’s Paris Air Show. The company has already proven its load-carrying Workfly and plans to license the Surefly as a self-piloting drone in 2019. The craft has eight contra-rotating propellers and a range of 110 km at a top speed of 110 km/h
The people-carrying drones are designed not for play but to whisk
their passengers over the traffic jams in quiet comfort. Ironically, passengers
in people-carrying drones may soon face their own aerial gridlock as drones will
be limited to flight paths where the downdraft will not cause damage and
overhead wires will not lead to crashes.
