Elevate Racing Unveils AirKart: A Flying Sports Car Aiming to Revolutionize Aerial Motorsports

For­mer Lil­i­um engi­neer Marcin Michal­czyk has emerged from stealth mode with his new com­pa­ny Ele­vate Rac­ing and unveiled its first prod­uct —AirKart, which is a sin­gle-seat eVTOL vehi­cle designed for both fly­ing and rac­ing.

AirKart is the cul­mi­na­tion of a life­long dream. Michalczyk’s back­ground includes deep exper­tise in air­craft struc­tures, engine design and a recent­ly com­plet­ed PhD in elec­tric duct­ed fan propul­sion. His résumé fea­tures stints at aero­space giants such as Rolls-Royce and GE, as well as expe­ri­ence more recent­ly at Lil­i­um.

Speak­ing exclu­sive­ly to eVTOL Insights, Michal­czyk said: “We hear about fly­ing cars from time to time, and we’ve seen a few pro­to­types fly. But no one has ever seri­ous­ly tried to build a fly­ing sports car — and that’s exact­ly what we’re doing at Ele­vate Rac­ing.

“I’ve want­ed to build AirKart since I was a teenag­er. My entire career has led to this point. With today’s tech­nol­o­gy, the right team, and the right mindset—I’m final­ly ready.”

Aerospace-Grade Team, Race-Ready DNA

Michal­czyk cred­its much of Ele­vate Racing’s progress to his hand­picked team of elite engi­neers.

“I am lucky to be sur­round­ed with great aero­space engi­neer­ing tal­ent. I con­sid­er assem­bling this team as my biggest achieve­ment so far! All togeth­er we bring more than 50 years of expe­ri­ence from the best aero­space com­pa­nies, includ­ing Rolls-Royce, GE, Pratt & Whit­ney, but also an agile and light­ning fast way of work­ing.

“See­ing how our require­ments con­verge into mechan­i­cal prod­ucts and feel­ing like I am the stu­pid­est guy in the room in every meet­ing with the team – I am con­vinced I sur­round­ed myself with the right guys. We are on the fast track to the pro­duc­tion of the first fly­ing pro­to­type.”

What Is AirKart?

AirKart is a sin­gle-seat eVTOL designed pri­mar­i­ly for low-alti­tude, high-speed com­pet­i­tive flight, yet it’s engi­neered to be accessible—even for begin­ners. While it includes com­pre­hen­sive safe­ty fea­tures, it’s not intend­ed for com­mut­ing or errands.

Michal­czyk explained: “You could sit your grand­ma in it, but like any super­car, it’s not built for the gro­cery run — it’s built for rac­ing, adren­a­line and high-speed cor­ner­ing.”

Ful­ly com­pli­ant with FAA Part 103 reg­u­la­tions, AirKart can be flown with­out a pilot’s license in the U.S. and select coun­tries. It’s elec­tron­i­cal­ly lim­it­ed to a top speed of 100 km/h and alti­tude of 400 meters.

Pro­pelled by eight elec­tric motors —with only four need­ed for a safe landing—it deliv­ers both safe­ty and sport-grade per­for­mance. The in-house bat­tery sys­tem pro­vides a 15-minute flight time and is eas­i­ly swap­pable for quick turn­arounds between flights.

AeroKarting: A New Kind of Racing Experience

Ele­vate Rac­ing doesn’t just plan to sell AirKarts — they want to democ­ra­tize the thrill of fly­ing. The com­pa­ny will offer 15-minute flight ses­sions to the pub­lic at spe­cial­ized AeroKart­ing Tracks, which are closed-course envi­ron­ments pur­pose-built for aer­i­al motor­sport.

 Michal­czyk said: “We believe we’re the first sin­gle-seat eVTOL com­pa­ny not just tar­get­ing pri­vate own­ers, but also cre­at­ing an expe­ri­ence busi­ness. Tourists, thrill-seek­ers, and enthu­si­asts will be able to feel the rush with­out need­ing a license.”

The first AeroKart­ing Tracks are set to launch in the U.S. and Caribbean in late 2027, with fur­ther expan­sion into the EMEA region on the roadmap.

Innovations in Safety and Design

Safe­ty is built into every lay­er of AirKart’s archi­tec­ture. Its flight con­trol sys­tem inte­grates GPS, LiDAR, and GNSS Ground Sta­tions — offer­ing 1–2 cm accu­ra­cy for pre­cise nav­i­ga­tion and obsta­cle avoid­ance. 

The air­craft fea­tures a For­mu­la 1–inspired car­bon mono­coque for pilot pro­tec­tion, and each pro­peller is shroud­ed, a design chal­lenge that Ele­vate Rac­ing sees as a key advan­tage.

Michal­czyk said: “Many say shroud­ed pro­pellers aren’t fea­si­ble for eVTOLs. But with our senior engi­neer­ing tal­ent, we’ve made it pos­si­ble. It’s safer for ama­teur pilots and essen­tial for our vision.

“A sin­gle shroud over two pro­pellers? Too ugly. That’s why we devel­oped our Dou­ble Duct­ed Coax­i­al Propul­sion Sys­tem. It’s still ear­ly in devel­op­ment, but it’s show­ing great promise.”

What’s Next?

Ele­vate Rac­ing is cur­rent­ly unveil­ing its con­cept to the pub­lic and col­lect­ing feed­back. The team has opened an ini­tial fundrais­ing round to sup­port the final devel­op­ment of the first fly­ing pro­to­type, tar­get­ed for ear­ly 2026. 

Orders for indi­vid­ual buy­ers will begin the same year, with deliv­er­ies start­ing in late 2027.

“Our mis­sion is to bring the joy of flight with the thrill of motor­sport to every­one,” says Michal­czyk. “AirKart is just the begin­ning.”

For more infor­ma­tion or to fol­low their jour­ney:  www.elevate-racing.com