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Airspeeder releases historic footage of first drag race using eVTOL flying cars — first racing locations to be revealed soon

A land­mark moment in the future of motor­sport played out in the deserts of South Aus­tralia last week, as a pre-sea­son test con­clud­ed with the first ever timed eVTOL fly­ing car drag-race. 

The drag-race was part of a key pre-sea­son test­ing ses­sion for EXA, Airspeeder’s first elec­tric fly­ing car rac­ing sea­son, cre­at­ed by Alau­da Aero­nau­tics. This his­toric moment pro­vid­ed a first glimpse of fly­ing car rac­ing as a sport­ing enti­ty, ahead of inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion in 2022. 

The Alau­da Aero­nau­tics engi­neer­ing team is drawn from some of the biggest names in motor­sport, per­for­mance auto­mo­tive and avi­a­tion includ­ing Brab­ham, Boe­ing, Fer­rari, McLaren and Jaguar. As such, nat­ur­al com­pet­i­tive instincts kicked-in for an inter­nal com­pe­ti­tion that saw the garage split to cre­ate this his­toric first timed drag-race. 

The red liv­er­ied team (team Bra­vo), led by Tech­ni­cal Project Man­ag­er, Brett Hill faced the Black liv­er­ied team (team Alpha) led by Head of Oper­a­tions, Renee Fras­er. The two-day test­ing peri­od proved an impor­tant show­case of live race con­di­tions that teams and pilots will face in the forth­com­ing EXA races. 

For the first time, remote pilots were able to show the dynam­ic poten­tial of the world’s first elec­tric fly­ing rac­ing cars. The remote pilots were giv­en free reign 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.

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 Mk3 Speed­ers flew at over 100 km/h and heights of 10m above the ground. The garage was split into two teams with the red Speed­er (team Bra­vo) cross­ing the line 3.2s quick­er than its black liv­er­ied rival (team 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. 

These are key tests for the forth­com­ing EXA remote­ly pilot­ed GP Sea­son, the devel­op­ment series for the crewed Air­speed­er Rac­ing series that is set to take place in soon-to-be-unveiled loca­tions in 2022 and beyond. 

Matt Pear­son, Founder and CEO of Alau­da Aero­nau­tics and Air­speed­er, said: “We are on the cusp of mak­ing motor­sport and mobil­i­ty his­to­ry with the world’s first elec­tric fly­ing car races. This test race pro­vides the world a glimpse at the next gen­er­a­tion of motor­sport and mobil­i­ty. This first test drag-race is a major moment in the cre­ation of our sport and a giant leap for­ward for the devel­op­ment of elec­tric fly­ing cars.”

The Dawn of a New Sport

This first drag-race rep­re­sent­ed the cul­mi­na­tion of intense inter­nal com­pe­ti­tion between two-sides of the Alau­da Aero­nau­tics tech­ni­cal team. The result was a tense and visu­al­ly enthralling encounter with the inter­nal teams forced to adapt strat­e­gy in line with wind and dust con­di­tions in the select­ed desert loca­tion.

With the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of this his­toric first drag-race, Alau­da is poised to announce the world’s first elec­tric fly­ing car Grand Prix cal­en­dar under the ban­ner of the EXA Series. These remote­ly pilot­ed races will serve as a vital feed­er series for the forth­com­ing crewed Air­speed­er Grand Prixs.

In addi­tion to devel­op­ing the tech­nol­o­gy that under­pins the sport, it will be a breed­ing ground for the elite pilots that will pio­neer the dawn of the elec­tric fly­ing car rac­ing era. 

Race events will see a grid of full-scale elec­tric fly­ing cars known as Speed­ers race blade-to-blade in land­scapes where motor­sport has nev­er been before. Teams from a broad range of indus­tries will be pro­vid­ed with the Speed­ers but giv­en tech­ni­cal and tac­ti­cal free­dom to approach gain­ing com­pet­i­tive edge in the series as they see fit. This will ensure close motor­sport based on pilot skill and race man­age­ment.

Fans from around the world will watch via glob­al broad­casts with cov­er­age enhanced by tech­nol­o­gy that com­mu­ni­cates the vir­tu­al tracks and race teleme­try data pro­ject­ed direct­ly to pilots through aug­ment­ed real­i­ty. 

Because fly­ing car rac­ing does not require the same phys­i­cal infra­struc­ture as lega­cy motor­sport, this presents a sport built from the ground-up with sen­si­tiv­i­ty to the glob­al require­ment to race with min­i­mal eco­log­i­cal impact. 

Alau­da Aero­nau­tics has cre­at­ed the motor rac­ing arm of this new form of trans­port and with it a place and a space for the indus­try to rapid­ly devel­op key safe­ty, per­for­mance and dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies. This will has­ten the arrival of elec­tric fly­ing cars that promise to lib­er­ate urban envi­ron­ments from con­ges­tion through a clean-air form of advanced avi­a­tion mobil­i­ty. 

The EXA races will see teams drawn from across the world com­pete in the world’s first full-grid elec­tric fly­ing car races.  Air­speed­er will soon make announce­ments on the first tranche of teams that have com­mit­ted to these his­toric first elec­tric fly­ing car Grand Prix and the loca­tions in which they will be staged. 

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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