What began with an unsuccessful Kickstarter in 2017 is about to break out as a thrilling new aerial sport later this year, following the announcement by Alauda Aeronautics of the successful completion of its 250th Airspeeder racing eVTOL test flight.
We first got wind of an ambitious plan by Matt Pearson to develop a piloted eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) flyer to race on courses around the globe as part of a thrilling new sport in 2017. Following a proven design path from the automotive world, the high-speed sport would also serve as a technology testbed to move urban air mobility forward.
Alauda Aeronautics and Airspeeder were launched in 2019 and a full-sized flying race car was unveiled in early 2021, followed by flight tests and remotely piloted races over an aerial drag strip. Now the 250th test-flight milestone has been reached.
The Airspeeder flying race car features a carbon fiber body in the style of a 1950s F1 racing car, with eight motors rocking two blades per motor keeping the pilot and craft aloft for a per-charge flight time of up to 20 minutes. A zip from zero to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 2.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 160 km/h (99.4 mph) at a racing height of 60 m (196 ft) is sure to make those flight minutes pretty thrilling ones. And a suite of more than 20 sensors helps ensure race safety.
Examples of the kind of next-gen technologies already being developed as part of the Airspeeder program includes the provision of remote connectivity solutions built around 5G in partnership with Telstra and Amazon Web Services that will "deliver safe racing and the ability to broadcast and stream to a global audience in real time."
LiDAR and radar used to create a "virtual force field" around the aircraft – so that they can safely race "blade-to-blade" without making contact – "will serve as the foundations for the digital solutions that will allow safe autonomous eVTOL passenger flying in urban settings."
With this test-flight milestone in the bag, the development team is now looking ahead to the first Grand Prix series races later this year.
"In 2019 we set about an ambitious mission to hasten the electric flying car revolution by going racing," said Airspeeder founder, Matt Pearson. "Since then a remarkable team of designers, engineers, technicians have made giant leaps forward, enabled by our partners, among them some of the most celebrated names in technology, motorsport and even the luxury industry.
"In completing our 250th test we prove that racing is not only a practical and accelerative test-bed and a viable and fast route to commercialization. For an industry predicted to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040 we are proving the application of this truly world-changing technology. This is just the beginning and we can’t wait to introduce the world to this true next-generation motorsport through 2022."
Future plans for Alauda include the development of a performance eVTOL based on the Airspeeder technologies, but built for private use.
The video below has more.
Source: Alauda Aeronautics
Without logical efficiency it's no wonder the video does not show 99mph nor 0-60mph.
Not so, they already have 250 succesfull flights flying long enough for air races on battery power alone. So it has been proven already.
Furthermore You are missing the point. Multicopters today are extremely manouvarable, because of not having wings, winged aircraft can only dream of becoming this versatile because of the very nature of its design, ie bulky aerodynamically manouvarable obstructing wings, multicopters are Not supposed to have wings, as it will inherit all the negative characteristics that limits winged aircraft to be more manouverable. The downforce on forward flight is not
merit enough to add wings that would sacrifice its quick acceleration and manouvaribility. They fly efficient enough to compete in a 20 min air race. And as battery technology improve, so will flight times.
For distant flying they could
use smallish wings at the sacrifice of these essential characteristics, but that would have to be in a different class. So they could have say a class A and a class B category.
As a cargo drone i can see this concept working for longer distance as a band aid while we improve battery technology/capacitors/fuel cells for pure multicopter long distance flight
As a racer and all round city flying/confined area landings and take offs a pure multicopter without wings would be my choice as it already can be done.
Having said that a replacement for the lithium battery is still some years off, so winged multicopters as per the example you gave can be used in a class of its own in races as i originally mentioned. Call it the "endurance "class.
Then how about a hybrid class: folding type wing where the wings "spring"out whilst flying long distance and retract when doing high manouvarable manouveres such as in races or confined spaces.