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The flying motorcycle is back in Dubai and the police could drive one in the not-so-distant future.
A year after the Californian start-up Hoversurf presented its hovercraft at the GITEX Tech Expo under the bright colors of Dubai police, the company came back with a new model and proves that its electric vehicle to take off and landing vertically (eVTOL ) could be taking off
In signing the agreement reached in 2017, Hoversurf offered the Dubai police its first mass production unit of the Hoverbike S3 2019 and began training agents to fly it.
Brigadier Khalid Nasser Alrazooqi, General Manager of the Dubai Police Department of Artificial Intelligence, described the eVTOL vehicle as a first responder unit used to access hard-to-reach areas. He said that he intended to operate hovercraft by 2020.
"Currently, two crews are already training (to pilot the hoverbike) and we are increasing the number," he told CNN. Hoversurf Operations Chief Joseph Segura-Conn said the ideal candidates would be able to ride a motorcycle and have a driving experience with a drone. The video of an officer learning to fly the hoverbike was posted last month.
Dubai Police Brigadier Khalid Nasser Alrazooqi told CNN that two crews are already training to fly the eVTOL aircraft.
Segura-Conn said the Dubai police had the exclusive right to order as many units as she wished: "They will let us know in a month or two if they want more." .. if they want 30 or 40, we will get there for them. "
If you are not a member of the police force and you have $ 150,000 reserve, the hoverbike could still belong to you. The orders are open to civilians, but Segura-Conn warns that buyers are controlled to make sure that they can handle the new technology.
Tim Robinson, editor of Aerospace magazine, described the vehicle as "somewhat limited" when it was a potential police job, but he did not shed any money. 39, cold water on the hoverbike, adding that it "looked very fun".
He explained that eVTOL technologies are limited by current battery technology, but that advances – particularly in terms of battery power density and the introduction of new materials such as graphene – could increase flight time in the future.
Both Hoversurf and the Dubai Police have stated that they are working for this purpose, either by battery technology or by more efficient propulsion systems. Hoversurf has already developed a ducted fan system that, he says, is smaller, quieter, safer and more efficient than an equivalent thrust propeller, which it plans to add to future models.
A manufacturing site for S3 2019 has not been confirmed yet, but Segura-Conn said Hoversurf was in talks "with three companies located in different parts of the world," including Dubai.
The 2019 S3 joins an ever increasing crowd of eVTOL aircraft at various stages of completion. Earlier this year, CNN toured the Kitty Hawk Flyer, another personal eVTOL aircraft that went from reality to reality. Hoversurf also has a larger two-seater flying car that it plans to present in "four to five months" and sell in 2020, said Segura-Conn.
Robinson estimated that more than 100 eVTOL projects or flying cars had already been announced. He compared this period of frenetic activity and this pioneering spirit to the beginnings of motorized flying.
"There are many different configurations: people with external rotors, sheathed fans, wings, no wings, tilt wings, tilt rotors," he declares. "Nobody knows exactly how it's going to work or who will succeed."
"I think it's a very exciting time – (a) a big time – for innovations in the aerospace industry."
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