Ever dreamt of having your own personal plane that you can take anywhere? Well there is a startup company that is working on just that. Kitty Hawk is a company supported by Google co-founder Larry Page. Kitty Hawk is currently working on their new flyer, a new all-electric ultra-light plane.
Just a few years ago, this concept of owning your own flying car might have just been fiction you see in movies or cartoons. There might soon come a time when everybody owns one of these flying cars. Just imagine having a full sky and an endless road that leads you to wherever you want to go.
Kitty Hawk has come a long way in a very short amount of time. From its initial concept stage to now, it has made tremendous improvements to its idea. The Flyer weighs about 250 pounds and is supported by 10 battery powered propellers and two joystick. It can only carry one passenger for the time being. And also it only elevate to maximum height of ten feet. Battery conditions are also not that great yet. It can only be airborne for around 20 minutes. So, you won’t be able to take it for a ride soaring through the clouds just yet. The Flyer requires about two hours of training to understand the basic mechanics of operations. And the company says that it is easy to operate with some professional training.
The Kitty Hawk Flyer is not the only product that the company is working on. It has also been working on the Cora, the company’s version of two-seated electric aircraft. It has 13 rotors which allow it to take off and land vertically on the ground. The company designed it for an air taxi service. It hopes that one day booking an air taxi will be as simple as booking a regular taxi or an Uber.
Kitty Hawk is not the only company working on this technology. There are many other companies including aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus and also the ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft. As companies start investing more and more into this idea, the technology behind it will only get better. According to Kitty Hawk’s CEO, Sebastian Thurn, in a recent interview with CNBC, the flying car could become available in five years in cities like Dubai.
Even with all these exciting new technologies and ideas, the state of flying cars is not yet mature enough for it to be mass produced and be of everyday use. The battery technology for allowing these flying cars to be airborne for longer amounts of time and commutes is still not there yet. There are also safety and air traffic issues that need to be sorted out before they are approved by governments to be commercially available. So, although in the near future you might be able to take off for work from your rooftop, for now it still feels somewhat of a dream than will eventually come true.