A Filipino amateur engineer is poised to beat the world's biggest automakers in the race to make the first flying car. While the concept of an urban aircraft recently presented by the famous British company Aston Martin is still in the draft stages, the one just unveiled by a young Filipino engineer has meanwhile already beautifully taken off. See his first test flight which was successfully completed a few days ago.
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‘We had to deal with bad weather, so we had to wait until after our deadline before we could finally unveil [our prototype] to our fans,’ said Kyxz Mendiola, a young engineer from Quezon City, formerly the capital of the country located on the island of Luçon. Just a few extra weeks of patience after years of hard work.
A hybrid car-drone
After six years of effort the brilliant inventor and his team, gathered in a group known as Koncepto Millenya, have managed to develop this beautiful piece of technology. ‘I wanted it to be a sports car, why not even a flying Lamborghini? The design was a long process of trial and error. Some materials became too hot during use and other materials did not really work,’ says Kyxz Mendiola.
But after several years of development, the designers of the so-called ‘Ultralight Aircraft’ finally found the ideal formula. ‘It's a flying car type of vehicle that uses drone technology, or multicopter technology. It is like a drone-car. One of the key features is the redundant battery system, even if a battery has lost its charge, the aircraft is still able to fly,’ says Kyxz Mendiola.
Fifteen minutes air time
Fully charged after two and a half hours, this ingenious battery system ensures a flight time of 12 to 15 minutes for the ‘Ultralight Aircraft.’ This aircraft owes its reduced weight to its structure, made entirely of aluminium and carbon composite fibre which can support up to a 100 kilogram load.
With the successful inaugural flight of its aircraft, Koncepto Millenya is now calling on investors. The goal of the company is to market the aircraft as soon as possible, but also to work on the development of an improved version. ‘I intend to industrially produce a two-seater version of the vehicle, if I manage to make it a commercial success,’ says Kyxz Mendiola.
The race to develop a flying car has now been started, and it is possible that so far the Filipino outsider has the upper hand over his British competitor, Aston Martin.
