Road trips and flat tires will soon be a thing of the past. Views while commuting will definitely be nothing short of spectacular, as modern transportation is taken to newer heights, literally.
A flying car startup funded by Google co-founder Larry Page, Kitty Hawk was unveiled in April with a five-minute-long demo session for the New York Times, which published footage of the flight along with its report. As seen on his recent test flight, Cameron Robertson, the aerospace engineer, swung the flyer back and forth above Clear Lake, effortlessly cruising through the air and circling over the lake for approximately five minutes, about 20-30 yards from the shore.
The Kitty Hawk Flyer looks nothing like the flying cars science fiction movies have designed and bears no resemblance to the sedan parked in your garage either. The look is a mix between a jet ski, a mini seaplane, and as John Markoff of the New York Times described it, “something Luke Skywalker would have built out of spare parts.”
The craft is a 220-pound contraption with two pontoons at its bottom and seats one person, is powered by eight battery-powered propellers, controlled by two handlebars and a touch screen center and can travel up to 25 mph at a maximum of 15 feet above the water. And because it can successfully perform a vertical landing, it can take off and land without a runway.
“Our mission is to make the dream of personal flight a reality. We believe when everyone has access to personal flight, a new, limitless world of opportunity will open up to them. At Kitty Hawk, we engineer, design and build a safe, fun, easy-to-fly aircraft,” the company shares on its website. “We’ve designed our first version specifically to fly over water. You don’t need a pilot’s license and you’ll learn to fly it in minutes.”
The price of the Kitty Hawk Flyer has yet to be revealed, but it will go on sale later this year. According to the company, a three-year membership costs $100 and will include exclusive, behind-the-scenes content and product updates before the general public, as well as members-only Kitty Hawk gear, exclusive access to Kitty Hawk experiences, flight simulator, flight demonstrations and events, as well as priority placement on the Kitty Hawk Flyer customer waiting list and a $2,000 discount off the retail price.
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For more information on the luxury real estate market, please contact leading Brentwood realtor Arlene Rutenberg.