Airbus, Boeing or Uber – all of them and many others have long been dedicated to the development of flying cars with the aim of putting this revolutionary mode of transport into practice as soon as possible. One of the world’s drivers of this trend is the Japanese government, which is boldly subsidizing the development of these concepts and, according to the Japan Times, intends to commercialize them as early as 2023.
SkyDrive, one of the youngest Japanese startups of its kind, is bringing promising results in the field of flying car development. It has its roots in 2014 as a volunteer organization Cartivator, consisting of a mixture of people from various industries, including automotive and aviation. Not so long ago, he unveiled his SD-XX model, an elegant two-seater eVTOL aircraft the size of a car. At a speed of 100 km / h, it can cover several tens of kilometers. SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa claims that by 2050, he will transport passengers to any place from all 23 districts of the capital within ten minutes.
SkyDrive hopes to complete its first flight tests this summer. “We intend to use our aircraft as an air taxi service in big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. However, for safety reasons, transport should take place first over the sea,” said Fukuzawa, who previously worked at Toyota, for example, where SkyDrive is currently testing its aircraft. According to him, the company’s goal is to sell at least 100 models by 2028. According to Fukuzawa, one of these will come at the price of an “expensive car”.
Although there are more than 100 projects that flying cars are developing, the Japanese SkyDrive is completely unique. Their SD-XX is the smallest model in the world and therefore does not take up more space than two parking spaces for ordinary cars.
Source: The Byte, Japan Times, cover photo source: SkyDrive
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