Japan conducts flight test on its 1st manned 'flying car' prototype

The Tokyo-based start-up SkyDrive Inc. recently unveiled its flying car and conducted a manned flight test in front of the press.

Photo credit: indiaexpress.com

The company, SkyDrive, said in a news that it had completed a flight test using the world’s first manned testing machine, its SD-03 model, an electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle.

The prototype is a one-seat model that looks like a combination of a small aircraft and a drone. It is four meters long, four meters wide and two meters tall.

The flying car has eight propellers and floated about two meters off the ground before flying for about three minutes over a distance of 150 meters at 4 kph during its test flight in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, on Tuesday.

For now, the SkyDrive model can fly for only five to ten minutes at a low speed of several miles per hour. The next step is to raise its speed up to 60 kilometers per hour (40 mph) and extend flight duration to 30 minutes. That would mean a capacity to fly nonstop for 20 miles, making the car a suitable candidate for exporting to other countries, CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said.

SkyDrive was started in 2012 by members of a volunteer organization called Cartivator, and the company began developing a flying car in 2014, according to its website.

SkyDrive announced it secured ¥3.9 billion from 10 companies, including Development Bank of Japan, NEC Corporation and Itochu Corporation. The company will make further improvements to the flying car and, if successful, it plans to have the machine be utilized by the taxi business in Osaka City’s bay area in fiscal 2023.

However, to make it happen, it is vital that the government’s safety standards and airspace rules be improved for the aircraft’s operation. 

Tomohiro Fukuzawa, SkyDrive president and a former Toyota employee said,

The flying car will make air travel more accessible [to residents living] in Japan where land is scarce and airports are not conveniently located,

The market for flying cars is expected to grow to $1.5 trillion (¥160 trillion) by around 2040, according to Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC.