Future flight: Let’s go racing
Adding speed and power to drone flying
Airspeeder is hoping to be the first company to the checkered flag. With offices in the United Kingdom and Australia, the company is building a piloted quadcopter with the goal of starting a worldwide racing series next year. The aircraft resembles the beautiful lines of a 1960s Formula One car, except the wheels have been replaced with the modern buzzy army of four drone motors and four or eight of their associated rotor blades.
Introduced at last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the United Kingdom, the Speedster Mk4 is a single-pilot, fully electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that meshes the worlds of drone racing and air racing.
Released specs promise up to about 108 knots and a 3.6:1 thrust to weight ratio. If achieved, that ratio would best the F–15 by a factor of three. As with any electric aircraft, the big question is batteries. The company claims about 60 kWh, or roughly the same as a Nissan Leaf or Formula E race car. The Formula E comparison is relevant because some of the same goals exist. Instead of being optimized for range, as the Leaf is, Formula E cars are optimized for power and acceleration. And keeping weight in check is critical in a racing vehicle. The batteries in a Formula E car weigh about 500 pounds, while Airspeeder says its aircraft will have an empty weight of about 265 pounds.
Although it promises racing will begin next year, Airspeeder has yet to make a piloted flight. The company has had luck with a large-scale mock-up, and says a piloted flight is imminent.
Racing technology has a long history of trickling down to consumers, so if successful the Airspeeder series could bring usable development to the burgeoning eVTOL market. Plus, it looks cool and there’s racing involved, which means Airspeeder is a company to watch.
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