Video: World's first electric flying race car unveiled at Gitex Global

Dubai - The car can hit speeds of up to 250kmph

by

Waheed Abbas

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Published: Sun 17 Oct 2021, 3:22 PM

Last updated: Sun 17 Oct 2021, 3:58 PM

A prototype of Airspeeder, the first electric flying racing car series, made its UAE debut at Gitex Global on Sunday.

The ‘speeders’ are on display at the Etisalat pavilion of the mega tech event. Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, is presenting the electric flying racing car at Gitex Technology Week.


Airspeeder is an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) flying car racing series, using electric manned multicopters in a fusion of urban air mobility (UAM) and motorsport. The electric racing series is created by performance electric flying car manufacturer Alauda and receives cyber protection support from Acronis.

Jack Withinshaw, chief commercial officer at Airspeeder, told Khaleej Times that the flying racing car is 4.1 metres long and designed for agility and performance racing.


“At the moment, our vehicles have got 120kmph speed and then the next generation flying car which will be released by the end of the year, we expect it to hit 160km,” he said, adding that the racing car which is available on display is able to hit 250kmph. “We will be doing the first manned flight in 2022.”

“We think historically for any mobility revolution, there has always been a role of racing which drives innovation,” he added.

He pointed out that the flying racing car’s battery lasts 10 minutes at the moment. “We have 30-minute racing. So, the vehicle comes in for an electric battery fix-up. The battery is taken out and a new battery goes in just 14 seconds. In the future, we will explore to do it even faster.”

He said he hopes that the first flying racing car will start at the beginning of next year. "We hope to have a flying car racing in the Middle East region in 2022."

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Peter French, Acronis general manager for MEA, said: “Acronis solutions protect Airspeeder’s real-time data, including analysis of battery and key systems performance. From this information, engineers define a strategy to find a competitive advantage in a sport where every bit of data is critical for performance."


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