Trek Aerospace FlyKart 2
FlyKart 2
Trek Aerospace
Folsom, California, USA
www.trekaero.com
FlyKart 2 is a single-seat, open-cockpit, 10-rotor, ducted fan, electrically-powered, eVTOL (all-electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft. Trek Aerospace has entered the GoFly Prize competition, more on this below.
The GoFly Prize was started in September 2017 and is a worldwide competition to make a personal flying device which must be safe, quiet, ultra-compact, user-friendly and near-VTOL—capable of carrying a single person for a distance of 20 miles without refueling or recharging. The function and design are up to innovator teams. There are $2 million USD (U.S. dollars) in prizes. The main sponsor is Boeing.
Phase I includes ten (10) $20K prizes awarded based on written technical specifications. Phase II includes five (5) $50K prizes awarded to Teams with the best VTOL demonstration and revised Phase I materials. Phase III unveils the Grand Prize Winner, awarded at the Final Fly-Off in the fall of 2019.
Phase I included over 600 Innovators from over thirty (30) countries across six (6) continents who submitted their designs for the GoFly competition. On June 14, 2018, GoFly Prize announced that Trek Aerospace was selected as a Phase 1 winner of the GoFly competition.
Phase II of the GoFly community is comprised of more than 3,500 innovators from 101 countries across the globe. Of these innovators, thirty-one (31) Phase II Teams across sixteen (16) countries submitted entries for review by a panel of experts across two (2) rounds of rigorous judging. The Phase II teams were required to submit visual and written documentation detailing their personal flyer prototypes. It’s the first time physical prototypes were introduced into the challenge and this crucial step brought everyone closer to the Final Fly-Off.
On March 26, 2019 GoFly Prize announced that Trek Aerospace completed Phase II of the GoFly challenge and will receive $50,000.00 USD in prizes.
On March 26, 2019, it was selected for completing Phase II of the GoFly challenge.
Specifications:
- Width: 2 m (6-1/2 ft)
- Length: 1.95 m (6.2 ft)
- Height: 1.2 m (3.9 ft)
- Cruise Speed: 83 km/h (52 mph)
- Maximum Speed: 102 km/h (63 mph)
- Cruise Endurance: 30+ minutes
- Battery Pack: 9.6 kWh
- Safety Features: Redundant propulsion/battery/auto-pilot, screened propellers, 4-point safety harness
Resources:
- Trek Aerospace website
- Trek Aerospace Twitter
- GoFly Prize website
- Video: FlyKart Prototype One - Maiden Flight Testing, Joshua Portlock, May 20, 2016
- News Release: GoFly Winners, GoFly, Jun. 14, 2018
- Article: Boeing’s $2 Million Challenge to Make the Sky Fun Again—With ‘Flying Motorbikes’, Wired, Jun. 14, 2018
- Article: Boeing Asked for Quiet Jetpacks and Got a Bunch of Air Motorcycles, Bloomberg, Jun. 14, 2018
- Article: Contest Aims to Lift Personal Flying Machines Off the Page, The New York Times, Jun. 14, 2018
- Article: Here are the Finalists for Boeing’s $2 million ‘Personal Flying Device’ Contest, The Verge, Jun. 14, 2018
- Article: Meet the Mad Geniuses Building Personal Flying Machines, Fast Company, Jun. 14, 2018
- News Release: Meet the 5 Winners Of GoFly Phase II, GoFly Prize, Mar. 26, 2019
- Video: GoFly Prize: Announcing the Phase II Winners, Mar. 26, 2019
