Home » Highlight » Why Didn’t You Think of That?

Why Didn’t You Think of That?

800px-Muni_1856_at_Market_and_3rd_Street,_April_2010

And the prize for most out-of-the box thinking about how to solve eVTOL’s battery-powered issues goes to… Karman Electric?

While practically every eVTOL manufacturer has been wrestling with how to develop a battery that can economically sustain their flying cars to lift off vertically and propel themselves forward long enough to reach their destinations, Karman Electric, a San Francisco, CA startup cofounded by  Chiranjeev Kalra, is proposing connecting the flying cars to wired power sources—at least for the first 30 to 100 feet of altitude—something like a reverse streetcar. Once they’ve lifted off, the wires untether, retract, and return to ground via a drone allowing the vehicles to reach altitudes of up to 3,000 feet.

San Francisco’s famous trolley cars have been doing it for more than a century. Trains do it. Even long-haul truckers have toyed with the idea. With entry and departure points along the way, flying cars could power up and land at will coast to coast.

“It’s a completely open system,” Kalra told Wired magazine. The real question is: “Are flying car manufacturers, and those who would build these power points, willing to take the flying leap necessary to make it fly?”

AAM.today Staff

The voice of the flying car industry. Subscribe today!