Kitty Hawk Unveils “Flying Taxi” In New Zealand Dubbed Cora
Kitty Hawk, a company based in Mountain View, California, recently took the wraps off of its all-electric, autonomous “flying taxi” called Cora. Kitty Hawk is working on the flying taxi in New Zealand, and the company cited the Wright Brothers and Richard Pearse (who separately took flight in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina) as well as New Zealand itself as inspirations for the project. Backed by Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Kitty Hawk introduced an all-electric prototype “flying car” last year that operates above water. Cora, however, isn’t targeted for consumer purchase but rather as “part of a service similar to an airline or a rideshare.”
Embrace The Future
With Cora’s unveiling, Kitty Hawk detailed the relationship it has forged with New Zealand’s government to continue work on Cora, which started numerous years ago with the design and engineering phases. Kitty Hawk established Zephyr Airworks in New Zealand in 2016 as the company’s operator there. Zephyr Airworks’ CEO is Fred Reid, who was previously the founding CEO of Virgin America after also serving as president of American Airlines, Lufthansa, and then Delta Airlines.
Of New Zealand, Kitty Hawk says the country’s Civil Aviation Authority “has the respect of the worldwide regulatory community”; New Zealanders are “people who embrace the future”; and the country has a “dynamic economy that could serve as a springboard for Cora.”
Dr. Peter Crabtree, member of New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE), said, “In New Zealand, we know we can’t keep using the same old approaches to meet our future challenges. We saw Cora’s potential as a sustainable, efficient, and transformative technology that can enrich people’s lives, not only in New Zealand, but ultimately the whole world.” Kitty Hawk is reportedly working with New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport and the CAA on Cora’s development.
“Flies Like A Plane”
Notably, Kitty Hawk’s CEO is Sebastian Thrun, founder of X, previously Google X and also known as “The Moonshot Lab.” Thrun headed up development of Google’s self-driving car project and co-invented Google Street View. While Kitty Hawk says it isn’t “putting timeframes around when Cora will be available for public flight,” Thrun said in February that flying cars could take to the skies within five years.
Of Cora, Kitty Hawk says the aircraft “rises like a helicopter and flies like a plane,” thus eliminating the need for runways and enabling it to take off from rooftops. Cora’s safety features include usage of independent rotors, a triple-redundant flight computer, and parachute to enable landing without fans if needed. Kitty Hawk says because Cora’s fans and propellers are electric, “they can operate independently,” meaning an “issue with one has no effect on the others.” Similarly, if one of the three flight computers that each calculate Cora’s location would experience an issue, Cora could “still reliably navigate,” Kitty Hawk states.
62-Mile Range
Specs-wise, Cora can operate between 500 and 3,000 feet (152.4 and 914.4 meters), has a wingspan about 36 feet (11 meters), has 12 independent lift fans, uses one propeller, has a roughly 62-mile (100-kilometer) range, and maxes out at about 110 mph (177 km/h).
Kitty Hawk says Cora has received an experimental airworthiness certificate from New Zealand’s CAA and the Federal Aviation Administration in America. “We are working with the CAA on further certification goals to bring an air taxi service to the commercial market,” states Kitty Hawk.
Besides Kitty Hawk, other companies working on “flying taxis” include Airbus, Uber and NASA, and China-based EHang.
Source: Kitty Hawk
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