The Alauda Airspeeder Crosses A Race Car With A Quadcopter

What might you get if you crossed a Formula One race car with a racing quadcopter? Apparently, it would be the Alauda Airspeeder Mark I, which the Australian company hopes to have racing next summer.

The concept has been under development in tight secrecy near Sydney, Australia for two years. Now, the concept is ready for crowdfunding, and a presence has been established on Kickstarter to literally get the race off the ground.

According to the Kickstarter site, the Alauda MKI is the first iteration of Airspeeder made by Alauda. This simple lightweight design was built with cost and performance as the primary concerns. The company and its staff all have substantial experience with drones and drone racing and know how easy it is to make small mistakes and big crashes. With this in mind, Alauda set out to build a test frame that was affordable and easy to manufacture. This will allow them to push the control systems to their limits, without fear of crashing a very expensive aerial frame.

A 1:3 scale model has been flown, and a full-size prototype is taking shape. To be able to carry a full-size human analog, the Airspeeder is powered by a set of 50KW electric motors and a custom battery system. The company says that should lead to small drone performance in a large form factor speeder. "We wanted people to look at the curves of the MKI and instantly know that it is a flying race car invoking a passion for a sport unlike any other. To achieve this we have taken the body from an old 1960’s Formula V car and retrofitted it to our low cost test frame, hinting to a golden age of motor sport, being reborn into a modern world," the company says.

The ultimate goal is to hold the world's first flying car race in the Australian desert in 2018. Stay tuned.

(Images from Kickstarter page)

FMI: Kickstarter