Alauda Airspeeder
Airspeeder
Alauda
Sydney, Australia
www.airspeeder.com
www.alaudaracing.com
Alauda Aeronautics was founded by Matt Pearson in 2016 and is the creator of the Airspeeder and is based in Sydney, Australia. With the emergence of electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft start-ups taking place round the world right now, this company is not looking at Urban Air Mobility but instead, has the goal to build the first eVTOL flying race cars and to start the world's first flying race car events on a global scale.
"Since there’s been cars, there’s been motorsport," says the company. Their eVTOL design is based on the 1960s British Formula One race cars and their flying race car is named the "Airspeeder". They are pioneering the future of air racing motorsport.
A new era of transport is emerging. The elegant simplicity of multicopters, their practicality, proliferation and the accelerating advance of robotics are enabling new, groundbreaking applications. Alauda Racing is inventing the sport of the future with the Airspeeder, the first ever coupé of the sky.
The first Airspeeder called the Mark 1, has four vertical propellers, with a single pilot, and is designed specifically as race vehicle. We are not exactly sure when the Mark 1 prototype was made and completed but the Mark 1 uses two forward and two rear vertical propellers and four custom 50-megawatt brushless motors. It is powered “by a the same battery employed by a Tesla S automobile” (presumed to be a 100 kWh Lithium Ion unit). An initial goal of ten minutes flying time has been set. A top speed of 250 km/h is expected.
By November 2018, they had designed several new Airspeeder models with 8 propellers, two on each corner of the aircraft. The new models for the Airspeeder are the MK2 for 2019, possibly a MK3 model and the MK4 is slated for 2020 and each of these new Airspeeders have 8 propellers each. As in the Mark 1, each of these new models are one (1) passenger eVTOL aircraft.
Alauda is pioneering the future of racing motorsport. Come and watch us race flying cars. Anything that makes us go faster, fly higher, we want to compete. What better way to attract talent and disrupt technology than to make a sport of it? Alauda is pioneering the future of racing motorsport. Come and watch us race flying cars.
Alauda intends to hold the world’s first Airspeeder World Championship in Australia in 2020. As different manufacturers enter the competition Alauda’s goal is to accelerate development of electric flying vehicles by placing them in a competitive environment.
A Mark II remote control 2 m (excluding propellers) model test flyer was flown June 23, 2018. At first, the Alauda company said it conducts much of its business in “stealth mode” but now, more information has become available since October 2018.
Airspeeder Characteristics (updated December 2017):
Top speed | 250 km/h | 155 mph |
Frame | aerospace aluminum | |
Body | carbon fiber composite | |
Rotors | 4 | |
Motor type | 50-kilowatt custom brushless | |
Weight | 120 kg | 265 lb |
Power-to-weight ratio | 1.66 | |
Battery type | lithium ion cells | |
Battery life | 10 minutes (initial goal) |
Company Insights:
Resources:
- Airspeeder website
- Alauda Racing website
- Alauda Racing on Facebook
- Alauda Racing on Twitter
- Alauda Racing on Vimeo
- Airspeeder on YouTube
- Airspeeder Kickstarter (Cancelled on Dec. 29, 2017)
- Article: Flying cars don't exist yet, but one company already wants to race them in the desert, The Verge, December 11, 2017
- Article: Australian Startup Alauda Wants to Race Flying Cars by the End of the Decade, The Drive, Dec. 12, 2017
- Article: Meet Alauda, the company that wants to build flying cars and race them, Mashable, Dec. 14. 2017
- Article: 'world's first flying car' race could predict the future of sports, DesignBoom, Dec. 20, 2017
- Article: This Aussie startup wants to launch a flying car grand prix, The Sydney Moring Herald, March 23, 2018.
- Video: We Build Flying Race Cars (Up to Speed: Episode 1), Airspeeder, Oct. 26, 2018
- Video: Race Track Recon (Up to Speed: Episode 2), Airspeeder, Nov. 3, 2018
- Video: How Not to Fly a Flying Race Car (Up to Speed: Episode 3), Airspeeder, Nov. 10, 2018
- Video: Speed Controller Pain (Up to Speed: Episode 4), Airspeeder, Nov. 23, 2018
- Video: Flying Car Blues (Up to Speed: Episode 5), Airspeeder, Nov. 30, 2018
- Video: Leveling Up (Up to Speed: Episode 6), Airspeeder, Dec. 16, 2018
- Video: Last chance (Up to speed: Episode 7), Airspeeder, Feb. 2, 2019
- Video: Heading West (Up to Speed: Episode 8), Airspeeder, Feb. 9, 2019
- Video: Quantum Leap (Up to Speed: Episode 9), Airspeeder, Mar. 27, 2019
- Video: Send off (Up to Speed: Episode 10), Airspeeder, Apr. 22, 2019
- Article: Certifiably crazy: how the world's first flying car racing league was born, Tech Radar, Apr. 26, 2019
- Article: Meet the Airspeeder, the New Electric VTOL That Looks (and Flies) Like a Formula 1 Race car,
Robb Report, Apr. 21, 2020
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