Science and technology reporter Liu Xia
In the 1974 film "007 The Golden Gunner", Bond chased the villain in his car, but he didn't expect the villain to fly away in a car with wings - this was the first appearance of the "car in the air" in a movie.
While movies bring sensory stimulation to human beings, they also stimulate people's infinite imagination.
Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, known as air cars, do not require runways and are quiet, making them expected to be an effective tool for managing congestion in large cities. Experts**, personal air transport will become a trillion-dollar industry by 2040.
In order to get a piece of this huge pie, many start-ups are working on solving the problems faced by air cars such as lightweighting and increasing cruising range. Tomohiro Fukuzawa, the chief executive of Japan's SkyDrive, said with great anticipation that the air car "will revolutionize mobility."
Cars in the air followed.
According to the Strategic Management Group (SMG) of the United States, there are currently 28 companies around the world working on the development of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
According to Tomohiro Fukuzawa, the company's first air car, the SkyDrive, which can seat three people, will aim to obtain an airworthiness certificate equivalent to a vehicle certificate by 2025.
At the end of June last year, Alef Aeronautics' Model A officially became the first all-electric VTOL vehicle to receive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval, meaning it can legally fly over the United States.
Alef Aeronautics unveiled its Aircar Model A at the end of June 2023, which is currently taking pre-orders and is expected to hit the road soon. USA Today
ALEF's all-electric air car is road-ready, has vertical take-off and landing capabilities, can carry one or two occupants, and sells for about $300,000. The Model A is now available for pre-order, with deliveries scheduled to begin by the end of 2025.
In addition, China's Xpeng Huitian Voyager X2 has also obtained a special flight license issued by the Central and Southern Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China, becoming the first successfully approved manned electric vertical take-off and landing product in China.
"Weight reduction" makes it easier for cars to take off and land.
Of course, on the road to take-off, air cars are currently facing some challenges, including "weight reduction", improving transportation capacity, increasing cruising range, and reducing carbon emissions.
It is reported that about 30 startups in Japan and abroad are taking on issues such as lightweight and cruising range of air cars.
For example, the SkyDrive uses the same carbon fiber composite material as the aircraft, which can control the maximum take-off weight to 14 tons, which is equivalent to about half of the medium-sized ***.
The company envisions taking off and landing on the top floor of an ordinary building. "By reducing the weight of the air car, which can take off and land on the roofs of various buildings, this will be an advantage in the Asian market (with high population density]," Fukuzawa emphasized. ”
Improve transportation capacity and reduce costs.
Increasing transport capacity is also a challenge that major air car start-ups are grappling with.
At present, almost all of the aircraft being developed by various companies can only accommodate 3 or 4 people. In addition to the pilot's seat, there are only 2 or 3 passenger seats, so the shipping cost may be relatively high.
Wesker Aviation, a subsidiary of Boeing in the United States, intends to overcome the above shortcomings with unmanned capabilities. In 2022, the company announced that it had developed a new four-passenger aircraft that adopted the control technology of a private aircraft, eliminating the driver's seat and reducing ground control. The company estimates that by saving on drivers' labor costs, the cost of transportation per passenger can be reduced to "$2 per kilometer", which is comparable to taxi fares in New York, USA.
Hybrid power increases range.
Like electric vehicles, electric VTOL aircraft need to be recharged at regular intervals. If you increase the battery capacity to extend the range, the body will become heavier and the power consumption will increase. This is a dilemma. It is reported that with the existing technology, most of the air cars can achieve a range of only a few tens of kilometers, and the use is limited to urban transportation.
The new aircraft "ATEA" from the French company Superior Flight Technologies uses a hybrid drive system. Atea's hybrid propulsion system uses kerosene and batteries to reduce fuel consumption and will have a range of up to 400 kilometers. Once operational, Atea will be able to fly in and around the city, carrying passengers on trips of up to 2 hours. In addition, the noise produced by the atea is only 1 4 compared to ***.
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