• 28 Aug 2020 06:05 PM
• 0

Kitty Hawk Ends Flyer

On June 3, Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Kitty Hawk and Alex Roetter, president of the Kitty Hawk Flyer program, announced on its website blog that it was ending its ultralight eVTOL program. “We built and flew 111 aircraft. More than 75 people flew Flyer. We proved to ourselves that people could safely operate Flyer — and become a pilot — with less than two hours of training. On a single day, we trained 50 new novice Flyer pilots, none of whom were licensed. Overall, we conducted more than 25,000 successful flights crewed and uncrewed with our Flyer fleet — a huge number. And most importantly, those who flew Flyer thought the experience was ‘magical.’” The program was started in 2015 “to bring the ease of flying drones to the world of aircraft. We wanted to show the world how easy it is to become a pilot, and to be safe at piloting aircraft.” According to TechCrunch.com, Thrun stated that, “No matter how hard we looked, we could not find a path to a viable business” with Flyer. The company continues to develop its high-performance, single-seat Heaviside eVTOL, which has a range of 100 miles (160 km), speeds of up to 180 mph (290 km/h), and the ability to fly in urban environments (in contrast to an ultralight). (Sources: Kitty Hawk, Tech Crunch)