Kitty Hawk’s Personal Flying Vehicle Tested

Larry Page-backed Kitty Hawk has unveiled its first commercial vehicle, Flyer. CNNMoney’s Rachel Crane took it for a spin.

Led by Sikorsky prize winner and Guinness world record holder Todd Reichert, the team has spent countless hours meticulously designing, building and testing Kitty Hawk’s first personal flying vehicle.

The Flyer, a recreational and lightweight aircraft, has been advertised as needing only an hour’s-worth of training before pilots are ready to fly.

In many ways, it operates a lot like a drone you can pilot from on top of it — it’s powered by 10 motor propellers that are self-stabilized, and is intended to be simple and easy to control. It’s intended to be flown over water, hence the pontoons on the bottom of the aircraft.

The Flyer is all-electric, powered by a lithium polymer battery. The battery lasts for about 20 minutes before it needs to be recharged. Because of the electric power, Kitty Hawk says the Flyer will be pretty quiet — about the sound of a lawnmower from 50 feet away, and the sound of a loud conversation from 250 feet

The Flyer is controlled by only two joysticks, so it’s intended to be used by pilots with little to no experience with flying. For first-time flyers, the altitude is limited to 10 feet, and the speed is limited to 20 mph — although Kitty Hawk CEO Sebastian Thrun says the vehicles should one day be able to fly at speeds of up to 100 mph

Similar to how consumer drones are self-stabilized to avoid tipping and to provide a smoother flight, the Flyer has an internal system that regulates the stabilization of the vehicle.

The Flyer is classified as FAA CFR Part 103 – Ultralight. This means that a pilot’s license is not needed to operate it and the aircraft doesn’t need to be registered, but that ‘ultralight’ classification comes with a few limitations as well.

Ultralight aircraft can only be operated by a single occupant for recreation purposes, and they cannot be flown over congested areas of cities or towns. They are also limited to a maximum airspeed of 55 knots (63 mph).

Sources: YouTube; Business Insider