Air Racing

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.

JetPack Aviation CEO David Mayman says the company is in discussions with the Air Race World Championship team on starting a world-first race series in September that would see jetpack pilots competing on parallel aerial obstacle courses.

After sharing footage of its flying car's first test flights back in June, Alauda Aeronautics has now carried out the first eVTOL drag race ahead of a fully-fledged race series slated to kick off later in the year.

Matt Pearson's Alauda Aeronautics has released footage of engineers remotely piloting its full-size Airspeeder Mk3 multirotor electric "flying car" ahead of international teams taking the controls for the first EXA racing series later in the year.

Following a Kickstarter in 2017 to gauge interest in an electric flying car racing series, and an international public debut in 2019, Alauda Aeronautics has now unveiled a full-sized, fully functioning electric flying racing car – the Airspeeder Mk3.

Airbus-backed Air Race E notes that the future of aviation is electric, and plans to stage the first all-electric air race in 2020. Its first airplane, dubbed White Lightning, was revealed on day one of the Dubai Airshow.

A grid full of 10 giant coaxial octocopters, each with a pilot on board, racing each other head-to-head through the air at speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph)? That's exactly what the Airspeeder racing series is set to introduce in 2020 with the aim of being a kind of Formula One for flying cars.

The team at Jetpack Aviation has just completed test flights in which two pilots flew close enough together to playfully boop each other on the nose. Next step: the world’s first jetpack race series, starting in 2019, and yes, the jetboards and jet suits of the world are invited to participate!

​Much of the tech found in today's cars was originally designed for racing. With that in mind, Matt Pearson figured that if there's one way of accelerating the development of flying cars, it's to race them. To that end, his company is now building what is essentially a human-capable racing drone.

Roaring, million-dollar World War 2 birds, chopped and tuned within an inch of disaster, wing to wing in a 400-plus mph circuit race over the baking Reno desert. New Atlas visits the world's fastest motorsport race, and meets some of its extraordinary characters.

With more than 100 flying cars on the road and in the air worldwide, Dezso Molnar believes the fastest way to take this technology to the next level is to get a community of inventors and aviators together to put their vehicles to the test in a competition on the West Coast of the United States.

The hangar doors have closed on Oshkosh EAA AirVenture for another year with over 500,000 visitors having passed through the gates. Here's a closer look at the sights on offer at one of the world's biggest aviation gatherings.