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By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
The old cartoon, The Jetsons, had foreshadowed many technological advances that modern living has been looking forward to –including zoom meetings, robot maids and flying cars. Well, flying cars are now a reality.
As reported by the NY Post, they go by the name of eVTOLs (electric vehicle take-off and landing), a new prototype model has lured in both private buyers and the military, with aspirations of becoming a hot commodity for everyday people. The eVTOLs don’t need a pilot and can be operated by average Joes— guided by intuitive controls, designed to get off the ground effortlessly.
For now, an early leader in the industry is The BlackFly, a state-of-the-art piece of flying equipment made by the company Pivotal. The machine has already been delivered to five different private owners across America. Also, the United States Air Force got hold of eight of the prototype models. “When I took off from my front yard, I felt an indescribable sense of awe,” recent Massachusets owner Patrik M. gushed in a Pivotal release.
Now, Pivotal, founded by Marcus Leng and led by CEO Ken Karklin, is ready to move forward past the prototypes. It has already created a successor to the BlackFly, named the Helix, which is available for purchase at the price of $190,000. As opposed to a Honda sedan which weighs roughly 3,000 pounds, this vessel is merely 350 lbs. This is what allows it to qualify for FAA ultralight classification, so that almost anyone can fly it. “Operators of ultralight vehicles are not required to meet any aeronautical knowledge, age, or experience requirements to operate those vehicles,” the agency’s code states.
Also, there is no need for a runway of any kind. BlackFly can take off from multiple surfaces including pavement, grass, and dirt, per FlyingMag. The vessel also has no landing gear. Users can glide along at comparatively low altitudes and up to 55 knots — which would be comparable to a highway speed of about 63 miles per hour. Per the Post, the cockpit looks pretty simple— two joysticks, a flight data-filled iPad, and a knob to activate an emergency parachute. “There’s a lot of technology in the back end,” company software developer Greg Kerr told Robb Report. “The aircraft is designed to operate in a simple, intuitive way, but it’s a layered and sophisticated platform,” he added, mentioning that it was designed with a failsafe “to mitigate possible failures.”
“It’s stunning, very dramatic,” Tim Lum, a 61-year-old retiree in Washington state told New York Magazine. He owns a BlackFly, and has successfully taken 450 flights in the 40 miles of woodlands near his home. “I’ve set up four charging stations in my valley, so I can do five flights by lunch,” he
told Robb Report. “And once people in other parts of the area found out I was here, they’ve invited me to fly over their land.”
As per the information provided in the Post report, for now, eVTOLs are for driving around empty scenic areas— unlike the Jetsons where they had traffic lights in the sky and neat lines of flying cars zooming around. The FAA has set restrictions so that “no person may operate an ultralight vehicle over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons.” Also the flights are only allowed in the daytime.
