Thu, Mar 15, 2018
Aircraft Has Been Undergoing Flight Tests In New Zealand
The reality of a VTOL electric flying taxi service may be a little bit closer. Kitty Hawk, a company backed by Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, has been flight testing a two-place electric VTOL aircraft called Cora in New Zealand, and an official announcement is expected from the New Zealand government soon that the autonomous aircraft is engaged in an official certification process, according to The New York Times.
According to the Cora website, the aircraft is designed to operate between 500 ft to 3000 ft above the ground. It has a 36-foot wingspan, and is powered by 12 independent lift fans, which enable it to take off and land vertically like a helicopter. Fixed-wing flight is powered by a single pusher propeller.
The aircraft is expected to have a range of about 54 nautical miles at a cruising speed of about 95 knots.
Cora currently has an experimental airworthiness certificate from both the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the FAA, according to the website.
The goal for the project is to certify the aircraft and bring an air taxi service to the commercial market in as little as three years, according to the New York Times. In an email, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that working with Kitty Hawk on Cora sends a message to the world that "our doors are open for people with great ideas who want to turn them into reality. We’ve got an ambitious target in New Zealand of being net carbon zero by 2050,” and given that the Kitty Hawk vehicle is fully electric, “exciting projects like this are part of how we make that happen.”
The company that is flight testing Cora is Zephyr Airworks. Kitty Hawk, you may recall, was the subject of a viral video last year of a single-person "hoverboard" for lack of a better term that is for recreational use. But Cora will not be available for public sale, the company says, so don't get your hopes up about buying one.
(Images provided by Zephyr Airworks)
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