REACH FOR THE SKIES

Electric flying racing cars have literally taken off, thanks to pioneering efforts from the Airspeeder team.

- Jonathan Musk

When entrepreneur Matthew Pearson first stated his ambition to create the world’s first racing series for electric flying cars, nobody really thought he was serious.

Two years later, and his dream has become very real with the first flights of a full-scale electric flying racing car, the remotely-piloted Alauda Mk3.

The historic flights took place at an undisclosed location in the deserts of South Australia, under the observation of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

Excitingly, the success of these flights means that three unmanned electric flying car Grand Prix can take place this year, at three as-yet undisclosed international locations.

The development of the Airspeeder aircraft, as well as the accompanying race series called EXA is touted to encourage and nurture new innovation in the worlds of batteries, electric motors, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and its associated electric-powered variant, eVTOL. In addition, Morgan Stanley predicted the technology to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040 – and it is already finding applications in air logistics and remote medical care, while practical applications of urban air taxis remains a dream but is fast becoming science, rather than fiction.

The EXA race series will see up to four teams with two remote pilots per team compete in three individual events across the globe – with the whole thing set to be live-streamed to both encourage global viewing and make the new sport more accessible.