Aircraft

Airspeeder prepares for crewed eVTOL racing with Mk4 design reveal

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A first look at the striking design of the Airspeeder Mk4 racing eVTOL
Alauda Aeronautics
A first look at the striking design of the Airspeeder Mk4 racing eVTOL
Alauda Aeronautics
Clearly inspired by a Formula One race car, the Airspeeder Mk4 is reported to have a top speed of 360 km/h
Alauda Aeronautics
The Airspeeder Mk4's four pairs of shielded rotors are mounted to 3D-printed gimbals, which are adjusted for take-off and forward flight by an AI flight controller
Alauda Aeronautics
The Airspeeder Mk4 racing eVTOL features a 1'kW hydrogen-fueled turbogenerator to power the batteries and motors
Alauda Aeronautics
The hybrid hydrogen/battery technology is reported to result in a range of 300 km (186.4 miles)
Alauda Aeronautics
The Airspeeder Mk4 racing eVTOL makes its public debut on March 9, with the first crewed races expected to kick off in 2024
Alauda Aeronautics
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Following more than 350 test flights and two demonstration races of its remotely piloted Airspeeder Mk3 eVTOL, Alauda Aeronautics has revealed the design for the first crewed racer – which boasts a top speed of 360 km/h and a range of 300 km.

Back in 2017, Australia's Matt Pearson launched a Kickstarter that proposed building manned electric vertical take-off and landing – or eVTOL – racing machines and creating a new aerial sport around them. The Alauda Aeronautics team canceled the campaign after only attracting 49 backers, but vowed to continue development.

Airspeeder made its international public debut in 2019, and launched a full-sized working prototype in early 2021. After lots and lots of testing and tweaking, a remotely piloted drag race later that year was followed in 2022 by an uncrewed EAX Series head-to-head around a kilometer-long circuit near Adelaide.

Now the renders for the first crewed eVTOL racer, the Mk4, have landed and reveal a complete redesign. Full details are still to come, but we do know that the new racing eVTOL measures 5.73 m long (18.79 ft), 3.62 m wide (11.87 ft) and 1.44 m high (4.72 ft), and tips the scales at 950 kg (2,094 lb).

The Airspeeder Mk4's four pairs of shielded rotors are mounted to 3D-printed gimbals, which are adjusted for take-off and forward flight by an AI flight controller
Alauda Aeronautics

Where the Mk3 remotely piloted flyer was 100% battery-electric, Alauda has included a 1,000-kW (1,340-hp) hydrogen turbogenerator in the Mk4 manned racer to power the batteries and motors. This Thunderstrike engine features "a unique combuster made using 3D printing techniques developed in the space industry for rocket engines. The combuster's design keeps the hydrogen flame temperature relatively low, greatly reducing nitrous oxide emissions." The intention is to source green hydrogen for the fuel to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible.

The Airspeeder Mk4 is reported capable of zipping from a standing start to its top speed of 360 km/h (223.6 mph) in 30 seconds. The four pairs of shielded rotors are mounted to 3D-printed gimbals, with an AI-powered flight controller adjusting tilt angle for take-off and flight. "This makes the Mk4 not only fast in a straight line, but also able to maneuver with the incredible precision essential in close-action racing," the press release reads. "In fact, it handles less like a multicopter and more like a jet fighter or Formula 1 racing car."

The hybrid hydrogen/battery technology is reported to result in a range of 300 km (186.4 miles)
Alauda Aeronautics

As you can see from the supplied images, the Mk4 also rocks F1 race car looks, with the carbon fiber monocoque sporting sizable air intakes and front and rear wings plus short mid-body box wings. Cameras, sensors and comms equipment can also be seen dotted around the frame, though details on such things have not been shared at this stage.

The Airspeeder Mk4 will make its public debut at Southern Australia's Southstart innovation festival on March 9. Alauda says that flight testing is already underway, that team entries for the crewed racing series are now open for entries and that the first races should happen some time in 2024. The video below has more.

"We, and the world, are ready for crewed flying car racing," said Pearson. "We have built the vehicles, developed the sport, secured the venues, attracted the sponsors and technical partners. Now is the time for the world’s most progressive, innovative and ambitious automotive brands, OEM manufacturers and motorsport teams to be part of a truly revolutionary new motorsport. In unveiling the crewed Airspeeder Mk4 we show the vehicles that will battle it out in blade-to-blade racing crewed by the most highly-skilled pilots in their fields."

Source: Alauda Aeronautics

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8 comments
paul314
FWIW, that speed is about the same as a supercar, and 0-100 kph acceleration is way slower. But could still make for exciting racing, which is more about maneuvering than raw power.
MQ
At least moving to tilting rotor pods the aerodynamics can make some rational sense, quadcopters with fixed rotors generate silly downforces in forward flit, or have high drag stalled lifting surfaces at slow speeds... not at all conducive to racing performance. ("AI" not needed - and likely misnamed. Good flybywire modelling with realtime recursive parameter estimation / machine learning, doesn't catch the imagination enough..)
Expanded Viewpoint
How you maneuver best... is with raw power! Go to YT and watch the videos of the 700HP Pontiac Trans Am blow the little cars into the weeds!! It has gut wrenching torque and brutal acceleration!
Jezzafool
I really want this to happen.....
martinwinlow
Ye gads, as if an eVTOL wasn't hard enough - now they are adding the massive complexity of notoriously unreliable (not to mention hideously expensive) fuel cell... I think they should stick to battery only and make do with the range hit until battery technology improves otherwise this lovely-looking design will end up on the scrap heap.
Bob809
I imagine something like this being used, especially in larger countries, for first responders. To keep the speed advantage, use a second one (carrying equipment closely following the piloted version with the paramedic/doctor in it). If an accident victim needs urgent care, have the second one (now empty as the equipment has been removed and configured quickly to take the patient to hospital/medical facility, that can then deal with any injurys or can forward them on by other means to somewhere that could save their life. Then there is a military version for insertion or return to and from strike/rescue zones. Collecting downed aircrew, various types of supplies from food and ammo to specialised equipment. Get the military involved and get more funding to work on a reliable power source.
vince
They should design cars that fly the same way. Have spoked wheels that double as fans that can be swung in so perpendicular to the road surface and rotate like a normal wheel or swung out and rotated as needed to propel the car into the air. When they act as wheels the outer surface rotates and when they act as fans the inner 'spokes' rotate as 'fans'. That would be so neat if someone could design that.
Aermaco
We love the evolution of tech when it follows a path of wisdom into efficiency vs skeptical ignorance that promotes only a narrow logic.

Ever since the "air speeder" appeared as a new form of racing, I was puzzled at the lack of anyone speaking about how bad the air speeder logic was for racing. In numerous places, I tried to identify that it was only a drone fixed propulsion axis racer, maybe a racing category worth entering as an existing tech being raced. It is like racing lawnmowers that must chew up the ground they traverse. It was not an actual racing logic because it wasted limited battery power by fighting and slowing itself from moving forward, which is the opposite of logic in any race.

However,
,, the MK4 is a beautiful example of excellent evolution following from its prior efforts in a bold and worthy vision of racing eVTOLs.

Bravo,, to Alauda's AirSpeeder evolution. They have not only identified a highly efficient racing vehicle but have also identified a very strong logical eVTOL aircraft concept for every air travel venue and use. The future remains in making propulsion systems more efficient.