Technology in our modern world is ever-growing, but often we forget the accelerated pace at which these industries are making breakthroughs. It was only in 2007 that the first iPhone was released, and now we can unlock them by just looking at our screens. Surely then flying cars don’t seem that crazy anymore.
The flying car—a wonder that has featured countless times in movies are usually set hundreds of years into the future, a pipe-dream that we expect our great-grandchildren to whizz around in. Instead, it may be more of a reality that we may experience in our lifetimes, particularly with this new breakthrough from SkyDrive.
SkyDrive, a start-up company founded in 2018 in Japan to specifically develop flying vehicles that has been backed by the larger car manufacturing company Toyota. The start-up is made up of a team of expert engineers in the aircraft, drone, and automobile industries and has also received the support of local governments in Japan.
The SD-O3 had its first public test run on the Toyota test field. Manned by a single pilot, the vehicle is the world’s smallest electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (VTOL for short) and stayed in the air for around 4 minutes. The company hope to begin testing outside of the field by the end of 2020, and if all goes well it is a possibility that they will become a full service by 2023. Not so far into the future after all!
The vehicle is set to be part of a grand idea of a flying taxi service, that will allow you to be “free of stress by avoiding traffic jams and rush hour trains”, something that we will all be glad to experience less of. As it is also powered by electricity, the SD-03 is built to be more eco-friendly as it also does not require the same infrastructure that other modes of transport do. The project is also set to expand to two-seater vehicles so don’t worry about having to fly about on your own!
