First Manned Flights Took Place Last Month

An aircraft billed as "the world’s most advanced, state-of-the-art, autonomous manned aerial vehicle" has been unveiled by PassengerDrone.

Slightly larger than a small car, the industry leading, the company says that Passenger Drone has the potential to change the traditional means of commuter transportation. Utilizing its easy to use touch-screen, passengers simply select their destination, sit back and relax, as the drone takes over, eliminating stressful commutes with the ability to travel up to 43 knots.

Flight testing began in early May 2017, and for the last few months has performed intensive testing with different simulated payload weights, simulated engine failures and different control modes. In August 2017 first manned flights with passengers onboard took place. The company says the Passenger Drone is very easy to fly in both manual and autonomous modes and it shows "amazing" stability and maneuverability.

Equipped with 16 electric engines, it’s a low noise, high speed, and economical mean of transportation which emits zero emissions. Its engine system sheds the complexity of most quad-copters providing enhanced safety, performance, greater payload and range, and less noise than anything else available on the marketplace. The vehicle’s structure is composed of lightweight and strong carbon fiber composites, specially created for Passenger Drone. The avionics, stability systems and electrical control systems have been custom designed specially for the PassengerDrone.

Passenger Drone operates on a fly-by-fiber-optic system. With the exception of the main power cables, there is not a single wire in the entire aircraft.

"With the launch of PassengerDrone and few other similar projects in 2017 there is a completely new market segment forming in aviation market –  the electric VTOL ( Vertical Takeoff and Landing) Manned Aerial Vehicles," the company said in a news release. "We are proud to join the MAV club alongside some of the largest companies in the world (Uber, Airbus, Google, Daimler and many others) who are working in the same direction."

(Images provided with Passenger Drone news release)

FMI: passengerdrone.com