The latest company to enter the race to build personal aircraft is Kitty Hawk, which has revealed a prototype electric vehicle that moves like a flying jet ski.
The US-based start-up – whose backers include Google co-founder Larry Page – is promising its first vehicle, dubbed the Kitty Hawk Flyer, will hit the market later this year. A video shared by the company this week shows it flying over a lake.
Technically a kind of octocopter, the Kitty Hawk Flyer has eight spinning propellers powered by eight motors – a construction it shares with many of today’s most powerful drones.
These drones take off vertically and typically have a high degree of speed and manoeuvrability, as well as the capacity to keep flying should a couple of the motors fail.
Kitty Hawk joins a host of other companies in vying to be the first to bring out personal flying machines. The leader is arguably Chinese manufacturer Ehang, which presented its passenger-carrying drone at CES 2016 and has since been secured a contract with Dubai’s Roads and Transportation Agency.
Read more on Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/?p=1077359
WATCH NEXT: Airbus presents concept for flying car at Geneva Motor Show – https://youtu.be/HsQZYSw4oNo
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