Aussie flying car actually flies

An Australian-developed electric flying car has taken to the air for the first time ahead of a racing series planned for later this year.

The Alauda Aeronautics Mk3 octocopter – it has eight rotors – is claimed to be the world’s first performance eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) vehicle.

Up to 10 examples will be remotely piloted in the initial three-race Airspeeder EXA Series.

But in 2022 the plan is have the next-spec Alauda Mk4 manned by pilots and race in a global Airspeeder series.

Alauda Aeronautics and Airspeeder are sister companies founded by Sydney entrepreneur Matt Pearson. The technical hub of the business is in the South Australian capital Adelaide, while the commercial centre is in London, closer to motorsport’s global epicentre.

Pearson wants to go eVTOL racing because he believes it will speed the development of the technology, which Morgan Stanley estimates could be worth $US1.5 trillion ($A2 trillion) by 2040.

“The Alauda Aeronautics Mk3 is the world’s first performance eVTOL craft. It is the result of the very best minds working with focus to accelerate a mobility revolution,” Pearson said in a press release.

“Racing will take this a step further and we cannot wait to compete with elite teams to show the world the dynamic potential of these incredible performance race-craft.”   

The full-scale remotely-piloted Alauda Mk3 flew for the first time at an undisclosed location in the South Australian desert. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has confirmed it oversaw the test.

The Alauda Mk3 is about four metres long, built around a carbon-fibre structure, produces a maximum 320kW, weighs just 130kg and can accelerate to 100km/h in only 2.8 seconds.

It is claimed to have F1-like 5G turning capability and a weight-to-thrust ratio nearly three times better than an F-15E Strike Eagle jet fighter. Top speed is up to 250km/h.

Each Alauda Mk3 is powered by a lithium-polymer battery with a battery life of about 15 minutes of flying. Each race will last 45 minutes, requiring two pit stops for battery swaps, a process that takes about 20 seconds each.

Alauda claims it has developed a series of new technologies including a virtual forcefield around the vehicle using Lidar and radar to ensure no collisions when they are racing.

Each Airspeeder EXA series event will compromise up to four teams with two remote pilots per vehicle. These pilots will be men and women and drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds including eSports. They are likely to graduate to the manned Airspeeder series.

The venues for the three events are yet to be announced, but Airspeeder says they will all be inaccessible to normal motorsport and available to the public via streaming.

In the EXA series the cockpit of the eVTOLs will be occupied by robotic avatars that resemble the human form and linked up to the pilots on the ground.

“When the pilot turns their head, the robot turns their head,” Pearson told The Guardian website.