American startup Zeva Aero has built a prototype of a single-seat aero taxi Zero and is preparing to switch to manned flights on it within three to six months, reports New Atlas. It looks like a flying saucer, and is made according to the tailsitter scheme.
Tailsitters are aircraft that can take off vertically, fly like an airplane and land on the tail. They are undemanding to take-off sites and have high flight characteristics.
Startup Zeva Aero introduced the concept of a single-seat Zero air taxi in 2018. This is a single-seat air taxi, which looks like a disk with a diameter of 2.4 meters and a weight of 317 kilograms. The flying saucer is made of carbon fiber. It has two electric screws in front and behind, placed coaxially. The first prototype Zero received batteries with a capacity of about 20 kilowatt-hours, and the serial sample will have a slightly larger capacity - 25 kilowatt-hours.
According to the concept of the developers, in the starting position, the flying saucer sits on the tail, and you can climb into it through the hatch at the back. It takes off vertically and after about 20 seconds goes into airplane mode, during which the passenger is in a horizontal position.
Image Source: Zeva Aero
Zero will be able to fly up to 80 kilometers and reach speeds of up to 257 kilometers per hour. The American startup has already conducted flight tests of the air taxi model, reduced by eight times.
The head of Zeva Aero, Steven Tibbits, said in November that a full-scale Zero prototype is also ready and is now being tested by flights with safety cables. In three to four weeks, the developers will begin testing the air taxi in remote control mode, and within three to six months they will switch to manned flights. They hope that the tailsitter will find application not only as an air taxi, but the military and emergency response services will be interested in them.
Today, a number of companies are engaged in the development of air taxis, including single-seat ones. For example, the American company NeXt in the summer introduced the concept of the passenger multicopter iFly, which we wrote about earlier. It is distinguished by an asymmetric design.
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva
