Future carsIsraeli-Made Flying Cars May Be Floating into Our Future
For nearly sixty years, the dream of flying cars that many Baby Boomers grew up on while watching TV’s George Jetson jet around the skyways has remained unfulfilled. But the dream is still alive. A dozen startups around the world are developing VTOLs (“vertical takeoff and landing”) – the technical term for flying cars. One of the most intriguing of those companies is Yavneh, Israel-based Urban Aeronautics is developing CityHawk to be an eventual “Uber of the air.”
For nearly sixty years, the dream of flying cars that many Baby Boomers grew up on while watching TV’s George Jetson jet around the skyways has remained unfulfilled.
But the dream is still alive. A dozen startups around the world are developing VTOLs (“vertical takeoff and landing”) – the technical term for flying cars.
One of the most intriguing of those companies is right here in Israel. Yavneh-based Urban Aeronautics is developing CityHawk to be an eventual “Uber of the air.”
Urban Aeronautics’ CityHawk will have two features that make it stand out from the flying crowd.
First, the CityHawk won’t have wings or external rotors. Urban Aeronautics has spent the last decade and a half perfecting an internal propeller system called Fancraft (named after the large fans at the front and rear of the aircraft) that is safer for passersby and takes up much less space.
Second, the CityHawk will be about the size of a large SUV so that it can land on a sidewalk near your home or office. Alternatively, up to four CityHawks could land on the roof of an office building compared with just a single traditionally sized helicopter.
Emergency Services First
CEO Rafi Yoeli established Urban Aeronautics in 2001 to develop helicopters with internal rotors. It took until 2013 to get the technology to work. The first prototype, now called Cormorant (formerly known as the AirMule) took off in 2015.
Urban Aeronautics has two divisions. Tactical Robotics develops unmanned aircraft mainly used in defense, agriculture, cargo transport and power line maintenance. Metro Skyways develops manned craft like the CityHawk.
The Cormorant and the CityHawk both utilize Fancraft technology. The unmanned Cormorant can carry up to 1,400 pounds of cargo while the CityHawk is being designed with seats for five passengers and the pilot.
Yoeli tells ISRAEL21c that the first deployment of the CityHawk will probably be for emergency services.
“With such a small physical footprint, they serve a critical need: the ability to land anywhere,” he says. “You can bring a doctor directly to a patient or rescue a patient. Helicopters today often must land a kilometer a way, then the medical team runs through the streets. A lot of time is lost.”
In June, Urban Aeronautics signed an agreement with Silicon Valley-based HyPoint to incorporate the latter’s hydrogen fuel-cell technology into the CityHawk.
