Metro Skyway just presented its strategies to develop a four-person, hydrogen-powered flying vehicle that it hopes will be buzzing above high-rise buildings by 2022.
Metro Skyway is a subsidiary of Tel Aviv-based Urban Aeronautics.
The vehicle will at first work on jet fuel, but will ultimately shift to liquid hydrogen once the technology ends up being commercially feasible. The vertical-takeoff and landing (VTOL) airplane, also called the CityHawk, will make use of Urban Aeronautics patented internal rotor system ingrained in the fuselage to attain flight.
“Utilizing hydrogen merely needs crash-proof fuel tanks,” stated Janina Frankel-Yoeli, vice president for marketing at Urban Aeronautics, “but there are numerous hydrogen-powered road vehicles that are already in use and a number of reasons why it might even be more secure than jet fuel.”
Urban Aeronautics has been dealing with this concept for more than a year and presently has a one-ton, unmanned drone named the Cormorant carrying out flight tests at an air base located in Northern Israel.
The Cormorant was established for the Israeli armed force. The flight test isn’t really much to take a look at, however its worth keeping in mind that when landing, the Cormorant determines a marker on the tarmac and touches down autonomously together with it. The vehicle has come a huge way considering the first test of its predecessor, the AirMule, in Israel in 2004.
Metro Skyway states the CityHawk will be comparable in design to the Cormorant, but instead of transporting military equipment, it will be carrying travelers. The Cormorant can fly in between structures and below power lines, accelerate to 115 mph, remain up for an hour, and carry as much as 1,100 pounds. The company is wanting to take some of these functions, in addition to the Cormorant’s autonomous functions, and bring them over to the CityHawk.
