This 18-rotor electric ‘flying taxi’ will be buzzing overhead next year
The hot new trend in aeronautics these days is VTOL (pronounced vee-tol), which stands for “vertical take-off and landing.” These aircraft are known colloquially as “flying cars,” but we should probably think of them more as drones crossed with helicopters. Uber is working on a VTOL project, as is Airbus, DARPA, and Google co-founder Larry Page. Because nothing says “I’m very rich and I hate traffic” like a flying car project.
E-volo, a German aviation startup, has been pursuing ultralight, electrically powered “multicopter” technology for several years now. The company’s Volocopter VC200, a 18-rotor drone-helicopter hybrid, took its first crewed flight last year. Today at AERO, Europe’s largest general aviation trade fair in...