See The First Ever Flying Car Race
Airspeeder is a company that has now engaged in the first-ever flying car race.
This article is more than 2 years old
The first flying car race happened in the South Australian desert. The flying car startup Airspeeder completed the race with two competing pilots flying the cars remotely. As noted by The Byte, it made for an astonishing launch “of a brand-new kind of motorsport.”
We never thought we’d see a flying car race happen simply because the thought of cars flying around in cities seemed like something we only see in a cartoon. Then about ten years ago, the Transition was introduced to us. Developed by the U.S. company Terrafugia, the transition lifted to 14,000 feet and was said to cost $280k. Terrafugia would shut down operations in 2021 and pulled the plug on the development of the Transition.
Airspeeder has stated that it’s already working on organizing crew races. More flying car races may even take place within the next year. The company suggests that they need to ensure pilots are safe.
Regardless, the flying car race is something that will definitely make people start paying attention to the company. According to New Atlas, the Airspeeder is constructed from carbon fiber and can haul up to 80kg in the air. If you happened to be afraid of heights, then this probably wouldn’t be for you.
The two Airspeeder pilots were pitted against one another for the first time in the flying car race. Each team factored in a quick pitstop in order to swap out batteries. Commentators for the race were former F1 driver Bruno Senna and motorsports broadcaster Nikki Shields.
Airspeeder hopes to transition the success of the first flying car race into an entire Grand Prix league. The company wants to kick things off in 2024. Of course, the tricky part is making sure the cars are well-equipped.
We reported last year that Airspeeder launched a preseason test run of its unmanned speeders before the EXA drag race. The flying car in the desert proved the preseason test run was definitely a success. During the test run, two Mk3 speeders ran a 300-meter virtual drag strip while suspended 15 feet above the ground.
Now that we know flying car races are a thing, how long before people start betting on these speeders online? The odds are that it has already happened and that the speeders are costing thousands of dollars. It’ll be interesting to see if Airspeeder inspires more flying car models in the future and if these will go on the market.
The success of the flying car race is due to the machines themselves. Weighing 286 pounds and supporting the weight of a human pilot, these speeders can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in mere seconds. They could also reach an altitude of 1,600 feet.
A third iteration of the speeder took flight last year. As mentioned, the success of the flying car race may tempt other companies to try and develop their own speeders similar to the ones created by Airspeeder. Hopefully, these machines will continue to develop as time passes and more people become aware of these things.
