The Japanese first tested a flying car with the participation of the pilot
Japanese tech startup SkyDrive has conducted the first human test flight of a prototype SD-03 single-seat flying car. The aircar, equipped with a battery and four propellers, successfully climbed and hovered in the air at a height of one and a half to two meters above the ground for about five minutes.
The head of the project, Tomohiro Fukuzawa, in an interview with The Associated Press (AP), noted that few companies involved in such developments have been able to achieve this.
“Among more than a hundred flying car projects in the world, only a few have succeeded in pilot testing. Hopefully, many people will want to fly this car and still feel safe, ”commented Fukuzawa.
SkyDrive has received financial support from Toyota for the development of the project and plans to launch the first commercial two-seat flying car in 2023. By the way, by this time the Japanese government is going to launch the country’s first flying taxi service. They want to open it in Tokyo and Osaka.
The current SkyDrive prototype is capable of being airborne for only five minutes, and its maximum flight speed is several kilometers per hour. In the future, the company is going to increase the maximum speed and flight time to 60 km / h and 30 minutes, respectively. Thus, the device will be able to move over distances of up to 30 kilometers.
As pointed out by AP, this type of transport is different from airplanes and helicopters. Due to its compactness, it does not require specially equipped take-off and landing sites and allows you to quickly get from one point to another, bypassing ground traffic jams. Moreover, in the future, such transport is considered completely autonomous. In other words, the owner of such an automobile does not even have to obtain special pilot licenses.
The publication also notes that several flying car projects have been under development in the United States for several years. For example, similar developments were carried out by Uber, which wanted to use flying cars for its taxi service. But so far, none of the developers have brought their product to the commercial market. The main reasons are the lack of at least some kind of infrastructure for such transport, as well as the lack of a legal framework that would regulate its use. The same Uber in May of this year laid off the employees involved in the development of a flying taxi. The coronavirus pandemic has hit the company’s traditional business hard. There was no time for a flying dream.
