Kitty Hawk focuses on urban eVTOL business

Kitty Hawk, which was funded by Google co-founder Larry Page and aimed to launch an electric flying vehicle that anyone can ride, has ended the Flyer project. Kitty Hawk is expanding its project on a larger electric plane, the Heaviside.

Kitty Hawk unveiled a prototype of a floating flyer that rides like a bicycle in the middle of a drone in 2017 and announced that it will be released in that year. However, it continued to develop and in 2018 unveiled a design version that covered the aircraft frame and looked like a racing car like a cockpit.

The new version of the flyer can be operated freely by anyone after 2 hours of practice, and all 111 units have been produced so far. In addition, in 2019, the total number of flights exceeded 25,000. A simple calculation of 25,000 times in two years from 2017 means that 35 times have flown every day without a break. However, the reality is that the Flyer has not grown to a level that is sustainable as a business.

This is why Kitty Hawk announced that it will end the flyer project that has not gone beyond the scope of leisure and will focus on the Heavyside project, an eVTOL machine that can respond to larger and inter-city travel in the future.

Heavyside was equipped with six electric propellers on the left and right wings while one person was riding. When flying in the air, the noise is said to be 100 times quieter than a helicopter. It has a top speed of 290 km/h and can fly a distance of 160 km. If you can secure take-off and landing space, it can be a very convenient means of transportation.

Kitty Hawk has spun out in 2019 with Cora, a two-seater drone taxi, and Wisk, a joint venture with Boeing. By the end of this flyer, it can be said that it is trying to preoccupy an advantageous position in next-generation air traffic by concentrating its development capacity on the heavy side. Related information can be found here .