SkyDrive Air Mobility the Flying pilotless electric vehicle eVTOL

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• Electric vehicles
• Auto pilot (unmanned vehicle)

2020: Support of the project of development by Panasonic company of the pilotless flying electric vehicle

On August 19, 2020 it became known that the Japanese corporation Panasonic in partnership with other Japanese and international companies supported the SkyDrive Inc project. on creation of the flying autopiloted electric transport which in the near future should make flights a new form of city mobility.

Prototype of the pilotless flying electric vehicle Air Mobility from SkyDrive Inc.

In particular, SkyDrive Inc. expects to start in 2023 in Japan commercial service of the flying taxi, and in 2028 to begin sales of the flying vehicles to private buyers.

In Japan the flying cars officially refer to as eVTOL, or "the electric aircraft with vertical take off and landing". They are distinguished by electrification, automated management and a possibility of vertical take off and landing. SkyDrive Inc prototype. it is quite compact – its height is only 1.5 m, length of 4 m, and width - 3.5 m Osaka and Tokyo will become the first cities where is going to begin operation of eVTOL. The average time of flight will be able to be 5-10 minutes with a speed up to 100 km/h.

In August, 2020 the developer intends to carry out open demonstration for public. The company is engaged in active completion of a prototype that that conformed to the security requirements necessary for obtaining the certificate of the aircraft and admission to flights from the Ministry of the earth, infrastructure, transport and tourism of Japan.

SkyDrive is sure that by 2050 each resident or the guest of Tokyo will be able to move with ease by air between 23 municipalities of the Japanese capital in only 10 minutes. Besides, the flying cars will be actively used for transportation of people in mountainous areas and on the remote islands and also at evacuation at natural cataclysms or other unforeseen situations. Thanks to the profitability, noiselessness and the fact that for vertical take off and landing of rather small "patch" of the earth, the devices eVTOL can make flights a normal form of movement, are convinced of the company.

"Those from us who on volunteer bases generously put the time and energy in development of the flying car, understood all restrictions is private the financed project. And sometimes even doubted whether we will be able to achieve the goal – to demonstrate flight in the summer of 2020. However broad support of our partners - their financing, engineering experience and knowledge and also human resources - allowed us to implement this dream and to continue development of the project", – Tomokhiro Fukudzava, the president of SkyDrive noted.

"We are pleased by stable improvements which SkyDrive achieved during test flights, and the fact that in December, 2019 acceptance of preorders for cargo drones already began. I very much hope that the flying car of the company will take off and will disseminate the twilight caused by COVID-19 pandemic", - the senior managing director of Panasonic Corporation said Masakhis Sibat.

The market of such vehicles "could become ultraniche addition to the existing transport infrastructure", Rajiv Lalvani, the senior analyst of Morgan Stanley specializing in aircraft and aircraft construction considers. "Later they could be transformed to a method of movement of average distances, economic in terms of time and resources, having selected a part of business at the companies organizing automobile and air transportation", - he added.

According to a research of Morgan Stanley in 2019, the segment of electric transport with vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) has huge potential. Approximately by 2040 global demand for it can reach 1.5 trillion dollars.

2019: Testing of a prototype of SkyDrive

The first trial flights of the device SkyDrive Inc. in the open air began in December, 2019 and safely came to the end in March, 2020.