A privately funded company backed by a Google co-founder has
revealed details of an eight-year-old project to develop an electric air taxi
named Cora that has moved to New Zealand for flight testing and early
commercial operations.
The Cora vehicle unveiled by
California-based Kitty Hawk on 12 March is one of at least 55
announced electric air taxi development projects now underway, but it is also
one of the most well-funded. Larry Page, the Google executive, has reportedly
invested more than $100 million in the concept, which was formally known as
Zee.Aero.
The project had developed in great
secrecy since 2010 near Google’s global headquarters in Mountain View. Images
released by Kitty Hawk on 12 March reveal a steady progression of
development, which began with tests of a scaled glider eight years ago.
Last August, a human pilot performed a
transition from hovering to forward flight in a prototype aircraft, which
featured a narrow fuselage and a lift-plus-cruise propulsion system of six sets
of wing-mounted rotors for vertical flight and a pusher propeller for forward
flight.
At the same time, Kitty
Hawk had already built a new aircraft, according to US Federal Aviation
Administration registration documents. The fuselage of the prototype tested in
August was too narrow to accommodate more than one person on board. The next
version that Kitty Hawk registered 2 August had a wider fuselage with
room for two occupants. That vehicle was registered with the FAA as serial
number 2.
Kitty Hawk partnered with the New
Zealand government in October 2017, citing the country’s “forward thinking
regulatory environment”, the company says.
“We couldn’t be more excited to
collaborate on a new era of everyday flight,” Kitty Hawk adds.
The Cora features a lift-and-cruise
configuration, which has emerged as one of three popular categories for the
emerging class of electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air
taxis.
By integrating a distributed propulsion
system driven by electric-powered motors, a new industry is attempting to form
for providing small numbers of passengers with short rides over gridlocked
urban traffic.
The US Federal Aviation Administration
currently lacks a certification basis to accept the airworthiness of such
vehicles to transport fare-paying passengers. But the agency is working with
several manufacturers to develop consensus-based standards compatible with Part
23 in the Federal Aviation Regulations.
Kitty Hawk’s competitors include Joby
Aviation, which announced raising $100 million in a Series B round of financing
last month. Several major aircraft manufacturers, including Boeing, Airbus and
Bell, are also developing prototypes for the eVTOL air taxi market.
(Evangle Luo of TTFLY shared with you)
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