The American startup Zeva Aero has created a prototype of the one-seat air taxi Zero and plans to fly on it in the next six months. According to New Atlas, the flying machine looks like a flying saucer.
Air taxi is made according to the tailsitter scheme – these are aircraft that can take off vertically, fly like ordinary airplanes and land on their tail. They can land and take off at any take-off site and have high flight characteristics.
The developers presented the concept of a single air taxi back in 2018. The device looks like a disc made of carbon fiber with a diameter of 2.4 meters and a mass of 317 kilograms.
In the starting position, the flying saucer sits on the tail, and in order to get into it, you will need to climb through the rear hatch. Then the device takes off and after 20 seconds switches to airplane mode. During the flight, the passenger will be in a horizontal position. The new air taxi will be able to fly up to 80 kilometers at a speed of up to 257 km / h.
At the moment, the development company has already conducted flight tests of a reduced copy. Now it remains to test in practice the full-size version. According to the head of the startup Stephen Tibbits, the prototype of the cymbal is already ready and is being tested with safety cables. In a month, it is planned to test drive the air taxi in remote control mode, and a pilot manned launch is expected in the next 3-6 months.
