Geely unveils first production images of Terrafugia TF-2A eVTOL

Chi­na’s Zhe­jiang Geely Hold­ing Group has revealed images of the pro­duc­tion design of its Ter­rafu­gia TF-2A eVTOL, which will be specif­i­cal­ly used for urban air mobil­i­ty.

The com­pa­ny pur­chased Ter­rafu­gia — the Mass­a­chu­setts-based fly­ing car com­pa­ny — in 2017, and estab­lished a research and devel­op­ment in team in Chi­na to focus entire­ly on the grow­ing mar­ket.

Revealed in an online post ear­li­er this week, Geely says the TF-2A design is inspired by the shape of a Tiger Shark and will pro­vide pas­sen­gers with a bet­ter ‘three-dimen­sion­al trav­el expe­ri­ence’.

Details show that the air­craft fea­tures a H‑shaped tail and eight lift pro­pellers for ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ings. Geely added that the air­craft’s wing con­fig­u­ra­tion will also make it eas­i­er to cer­ti­fy than oth­er mul­ti-rotor or tilt wing designs.

In terms of per­for­mance, the TF-2A will have a range of 100km at a cruise speed of 180km/h, reach­ing a max­i­mum flight ceil­ing of 3,000m (9,840ft). It has a max­i­mum take-off weight (MTOW) of 1,200kg and pay­load of 200kg.

Geely start­ed the ground debug­ging and reli­a­bil­i­ty test­ing of the frame machine, which flew 0.5m off the ground and had a MTOW of 600kg. The first flight was con­duct­ed in Hangzhou on 8th June.

The frame machine was a met­al frame fuse­lage with four lift rotors, which rely on ground high-volt­age pow­er sup­ply. The frame machine is main­ly used to ver­i­fy the ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing, atti­tude adjust­ment, trans­la­tion and oth­er func­tions in mul­ti-rotor mode. It also test­ed the dynam­ic response, sta­bil­i­ty, func­tion­al coor­di­na­tion and pre­lim­i­nary safe­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty of each sys­tem.

A sub-scale demon­stra­tor com­plet­ed its first flight in Decem­ber last year and Geely has said it plans to offi­cial­ly launch a full-size pro­to­type ‘in the near future’.