The famous inventor of the Flyboard has developed and wishes to market a new machine, a kind of flying scooter, which will target the leisure market but also professionals.
His inventions have gone around the world. After creating the Flyboard (a turboprop board used above a body of water) then its aerial version that we saw during the parade on July 14, 2019 in Paris, and the JetRacer, a kind of flying car, Franky Zapata now intends to rely on these innovations to develop a new machine which this time will be marketed on a large scale.
Its name, the AirScooter. As revealed Le Figaroit is actually a VTOL, a vertical take-off individual aircraft that is also sometimes called a “flying taxi”.
It can therefore carry a single passenger and comes in the form of a transparent ovoid bubble. It carries 8 electric motors and 4 thermal motors for a maximum speed of 100 km/h at an altitude of 3000 to 4000 meters.
$300 to $400 per hour
Unlike fully autonomous flying taxis like the Volocopter (which we will see in demonstration in Paris for the Olympic Games), the AirScooter offers semi-automatic piloting for more sensations.
According to our colleagues, it will be presented at the end of June for marketing in 2024. The machines will be assembled at the company’s new site in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues in the Bouches-du-Rhône. The ambition is to produce 1000 per year.
This flying scooter targets several markets, first of all that of leisure through its own sites that would be installed in tourist areas. After a little training with a simulator, tourists can afford a flight in the AirScooter for 300 to 400 dollars per hour.
But the machine is also aimed at professionals to provide links to offshore platforms for example. The company is also eyeing urban connections between two points.
Regulations still unclear
There remains the question of regulations. In France, there is not yet a framework for this type of ultra-light machine apart from that for microlights which requires a pilot’s license. And even less to authorize VTOLs to provide links between two points. But things should change fairly quickly with the likely rise of Volocopter’s flying taxis.
In the United States, things are a little different since single-seat ultralight aircraft under 115 kilos do not need to be certified if they meet certain speed and fuel consumption criteria. Which would be the case with the AirScooter.
He could therefore begin his career across the Atlantic next year, notably in Arizona, in Lake Havasu City.
On the financing side, Franky Zapata’s company ensures that this project is 100% supported by private capital, like the German investor Team Global, very interested in VTOLs and who has just put balls in Volocopter.