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The launch of the world’s first flying car racing series moved a step closer after organisers released a video of two of the vehicles competing in a 100km/h drag race.
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Alauda Aeronautics’ test event took place in the SA desert last week and the footage shows the now remotely piloted ‘Speeders’ in action 10m above the ground.
It comes ahead of the planned launch of its EXA Series racing series in 2022, where the cars will hit top speeds of 300km/h and race over ice, sea, deserts and forest locations globally. Watch the video, below.
The first drag was an internal competition between two teams. The red liveried team (Bravo), was led by technical project manager, Brett Hill, who faced the black liveried team (Alpha), led by head of operations, Renee Fraser.
“The Mk3 Speeders flew at over 100 km/h and heights of 10m above the ground,” said Alauda Aeronautics.
“The garage was split into two teams with the Bravo crossing the line 3.2s quicker than Alpha. The drag race took place over 400m distance, as per the traditional quarter-mile drag racing protocol.
“As the race-craft move through their rapid development curves, they will race at up to 300 km/h in full race specification.”
Alauda said the remote pilots were given free rein to plot their own flight path to victory.
“The drag-race format was chosen as a pure demonstration of the performance and safety technologies that underpin the sport,” it said.
“In particular, the ‘Virtual Forcefield’ suite of LiDAR and RADAR powered safety systems that delivers close but ultimately safe racing. This will be heavily relied upon for full-grid circuit racing.”
The company also revealed more details of the forthcoming race series, saying its competitors would be drawn from “very elite of motorsport, eSports and civil, military and acrobatic aviation”.
It comes after Australian Aviation reported last month how Alauda Aeronautics released video footage of two of its electric ‘flying cars’ hovering alongside each other in Australia.
Alauda’s technical team includes industry veterans from leaders in Formula 1, and aviation and automotive giants Boeing, Brabham, McLaren, Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce.
It also comes after Telstra Purple announced it would provide the 5G communications technology that will be used by the electric flying cars.
