‘’NASA unveils its first electric airplane’’ was exactly the first thing I heard on today’s morning newscast . Aircraft industry is now one of the most dynamic and exciting field. So not surprisingly that new explorations and discoveries occur on a daily basis, allowing to uncover new means of transportation and also to improve that ones which are not impeccable enough.
I am convinced that almost everyone is familiar with drone as a flying robot that can be remotely controlled. But have you ever thought that it can become a competitive mode of transport?
Today it is our reality with a startup, founded by Alexander Zosel and Stephan Wolf, called Volocopter.
The ‘Volocopter’ looks like a helicopter and can be piloted remotely or on board. The drone is designed primarily for stable and safe flight, and to be used to nip around the skies above the world’s largest cities. One of the key ideas behind it is that it’s built with lots of redundancy – meaning that even if multiple things go wrong, it can still stay airborne.
The Volocopter took its first manned flight in Southern Germany on March 30th in 2016. With e-volo’s managing director Alexander Zosel in the cockpit, the truly strange-looking aircraft took to the skies above an airfield, hovered for several minutes, and then landed.
The Volocopter already has a permit to fly in Germany and has conducted numerous test flights (without passengers) in Dubai. The company said their dream is of a future where every human being can personally fly their own drone, and help major cities ease their traffic woes. Powered entirely by electricity, the Volocopter at the moment can fly for around 30 minutes and with a range of seventeen miles.
References:
https://www.volocopter.com/en/company/
https://www.theverge.com/2016/4/7/11388406/volocopter-18-rotors-manned-flight-evolo-germany
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/volocopter-the-worlds-first-flying-passenger-drone
I see the future where everyone would own one of this and it is a blast of cool mean of transportation!
Almost flying cars) If it was possible I would by this drone in order to get to some places faster, without any traffic jams and other problems…
The future is here with these flying drones. For more then 75 years we have been talking about flying cars and now its here
Pretty impressive invention actually. Maybe in a few years, such drones or some other flying vehicles will fully replace ground transportations and finally, we will be able to “officially” say, that the future has come 🙂
In my opinion, it takes a quite long time to make this project real because it seems like it needs a really professional approach. However, the concept is pretty alluring.