His inventions have gone around the world. After creating the Flyboard (a turboprop board used over 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 build on these innovations to develop a new machine that will this time be commercialized on a large scale.
Its name, the AirScooter. as revealed le figaroit’s actually a VTOL, an individual vertical takeoff aircraft that’s also sometimes called a “flying taxi.”
Therefore, it can carry a single passenger and comes in the form of a transparent ovoid bubble. It has 8 electric motors and 4 heat engines for a maximum speed of 100 km/h at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,000 meters.
$300 to $400 per hour
Unlike fully autonomous flying taxis like the Volocopter (which we’ll see demoed in Paris for the Olympics), the AirScooter offers semi-automatic piloting for more of a thrill.
According to our colleagues, it will be presented at the end of June for commercialization in 2024. The machines will be assembled at the company’s new site in Châteauneuf-les-Martigues in Bouches-du-Rhône. The ambition is to produce 1000 per year.
This flying scooter targets several markets, first of all leisure through its own sites that would be installed in tourist areas. After some simulator training, tourists can afford a ride on the AirScooter for $300 to $400 an hour.
But the machine is also aimed at professionals to provide links to offshore platforms, for example. The company is also considering urban connections between two points.
Regulations still unclear
There remains the matter of regulations. In France, there is still no framework for this type of ultralights, except for the one for ultralights that requires a pilot’s license. Let alone authorize VTOLs to provide links between two points. But things should change pretty quickly with the likely rise of Volocopter flying taxis.
In the United States, things are a bit different, since single-seat ultralight aircraft under 250 pounds do not need to be certified if they meet certain criteria for speed and fuel consumption. Which would be the case of the AirScooter.
Therefore, he could start his career on the other side of the Atlantic next year, especially in Arizona, in Lake Havasu City.
On the financing side, Franky Zapata’s company ensures that this project is 100% supported by private capital, such as the German investor Team Global, very interested in VTOLs and who has just put balls in Volocopter.
Source: BFM TV
