Airborne racer Airspeeder MK4 to debut at FOS 2019

In response to this vast opportunity startups are fast-emerging across the globe, all jostling for their space in the race to deliver the ultimate dream for the future of transportation. However, whether focussed on autonomous flying taxis, delivery vehicles or private flying cars, for these companies the reality of bringing this new breed of vehicles to market is still 5-10 years away, while the industry grapples with regulatory procedure, not to mention vital improvements in battery technology, motors and machine vision systems.

However, one pioneering player in particular is notably challenging this industry pace from the front of the field – Australian start-up Alauda Racing.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Matt Pearson, the company is five years into developing not just a fully functional flying car but the world’s first flying race car. Around which they are defining an entirely new motorsport format – one where pilots negotiate race circuits in three dimensions.

“When we started out, back in 2015, everyone thought we were crazy,” laughs Pearson. “But a year or so later, the internet started to flood with stories of all kinds of flying car concepts and the real potential suddenly hit the public conscious. By this time we were well on our way to building our first working prototype, and while other concepts out there are still very much on the drawing board, we’ve not looked back since.”

Christened Airspeeder, both the car and the race format will adopt similar rules of engagement to Formula E, offering a turnkey solution for five teams – each with two cars – to engage in aerial competition. Initially Alauda Racing will be the sole manufacturer, offering a rigorously-tested chassis and body, robust battery technology and motors, and standardised software including safety and collision-avoidance systems.

The flight endurance for this start-up package is expected to be 15 minutes at a flat-out speed of 100km/h, enabling a 30-minute race with one pitstop. And the advanced, sensory pilot experience will notably also integrate ‘bump simulation’ and safety-focussed Augmented Reality vision enabling the pilot to ‘see through’ the body of the vehicle in real time, ensuring visibility of any overtaking manoeuvres underneath the level of the cockpit.

Commenting on the potential audience for this brand-new sport, Pearson muses, “if you bring the booming global eSports sector together with drone racing fans, and integrate innovations in sport viewing media, you have a potentially huge audience for a thrilling, cutting-edge aerial motorsport. Who wouldn’t want to watch that?”

However Pearson’s end game is not to operate a world race series – his ultimate goal is to produce the world’s most coveted private flying sports car.

Just as innovation in motorsport filters through to push the consumer automotive market forward, so his vision is that investment in honing this new aerial motorsport will create a test bed to fast-track developments in regulating, approving and ultimately bringing commercial flying cars to market.

“If you want to build a good sports car or hypercar, you first build a racing car,” Pearson states. “As we know from today’s motorsport industry, the racing environment encourages fast iteration of new concepts, and healthy competition and collaboration. Similarly, for the emerging eVTOL industry, it will provide a safe and exciting platform for bringing these innovations to market faster.”

Rather than sit and wait for the predicted five years for regulation to take its course, Pearson’s aim is to accelerate the eVTOL industry and, critically, also to engage with the industry’s future customer base. Is his view, if a mass audience can understand and adopt this new technology in sport, it is more likely they will trust a flying taxi when the time comes.

Currently the company has proven the concept with a 3/4 scale version of the Airspeeder MK4 vehicle (approximately 3m long), which is piloted remotely. The powertrain is there, the handling is there, and so far they’ve proved a 100kg lift. Alauda state that the final full-scale test car will be flown by the first human test pilot by the end of 2019. Hotly followed in late 2020 by the staging of the first controlled race environment for an initial batch of vehicles.

To move to the full-scale piloted vehicle will take a serious jump from hobby grade to military grade parts, while the company is also facing the next-level of challenges – the requirement for an exceptionally high sensitivity of flight controller, no longer available off-the-shelf, plus custom motors, greater powertrain management and rigorous testing to rule out any chance of battery explosions.

“The only way to find the limit is to push past it. And that’s what we’ve been doing. Our journey so far has been a bit dangerous, and very exciting. We’ve crashed a lot, learned a lot, and rebuilt over and over. But we are now ready for the next step.”

And that step is revealing the concept live to the public. After months of flight testing in the Outback in Australia, the team are officially launching the Airspeeder racing concept at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, as part of FOS Future Lab. A full-scale static vehicle will be on display, with a flight simulator for visitor trials, while two 3/4 scale ground-piloted vehicles will be staging race format demonstrations in front of an invited audience.

Be sure to visit FOS Future Lab to see for yourself that, in the world of Airspeeder, the dream of personal flight is certainly not beyond reach.