Here’s a future sport – flying car races!
Alauda Racing, a Sydney based startup is currently developing both the vehicle and the racing concept. They have great plans and a great foundation.
The vehicle they are building is called the Airspeeder Mark 1 and is a quadcopter, similar to the high end drones used for filming events – but bigger, a single seater. The car will be powered by a 50 megawatt electric motor using lithium ion battery storage and the company claims a top speed of 200km/h.
The electronics to be fitted will not only include the normal flight systems but will contain collision detection and there are expected to be airbags to help with any unforeseen incidents.
The best way to prove and develop a technology is to go racing. This was pivotal in the early years of both the automotive and aeronautic industries. There is a very good reason why the Le Mans 24 Hour race and the Schneider Trophy race were founded – it furthered technology at a faster rate.
Clearly Alauda agree with this strategy and have high hopes of getting a prototype (or two) in testing later this year with racing to start a mere two years away. It seems that they have cancelled their Kickstarter campaign, however this site is actually a pretty good one to describe their plans.
I’d like to see something like this work – you have a group of people pushing some big boundaries and this is what should be happening. A skunk works producing what could well be the next major racing series and could become a competitor to the Red Bull Air Race series. In addition, it proves that the quadcopter is the way to go for personal flying transportation.
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