A flying automobile was being driven recently by an aeronautical engineer for Kitty Hawk, a small Silicon Valley business, over a picturesque lake about 100 miles north of San Francisco.
Kitty Hawk’s flying car, if you insisted on calling it a “car,” looked like something Luke Skywalker would have built out of spare parts. It was an open-seated, 220-pound contraption with room for one person, powered by eight battery-powered propellers that howled as loudly as a speedboat.
We are frequently informed that the tech sector enjoys upsetting industries, and recently the automakers have been a major target. For instance, self-driving cars that use artificial intelligence have been developed for a while and are already present on the highways of some major cities. And now, flying objects that do not precisely resemble your father’s Buick with wings are appearing on the radar.
More than a dozen start-ups are attempting to realise the flying car dream, supported by wealthy business leaders like Google co-founder Larry Page, as well as major aerospace companies like Airbus, Uber, and even the government of Dubai.
One of the several prototypes being created by the start-up, which is situated in Mountain View, California, is the Kitty Hawk Flyer. In order to “gain exclusive access to Kitty Hawk experiences and demonstrations where a select few will get the chance to ride the Flyer,” the firm intends to attract an audience of enthusiasts and hobbyists who may sign up for a $2,000 reduction on the retail price of a Flyer by paying $100.
