The aircraft—known as “electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle, or eVTOL—lift off the ground like a helicopter. When he was still a boy making long, tedious trips between his school and his woodsy home in the mountains during the 1980s, JoeBen Bevirt began fantasizing about flying cars that could whisk him to his destination in a matter of minutes.As CEO of Joby Aviation, Bevirt is getting closer to turning his boyhood flights of fancy into a dream come true as he and latter-day versions of the Wright Brothers launch a new class of electric-powered aircraft vying to become taxis in the sky.The aircraft—known as “electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle, or eVTOL—lift off the ground like a helicopter before flying at speeds up to 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour) with a range of about 100 miles (161 kilometers). And these craft do it without filling the air with excessive noise caused by fuel-powered helicopters and small airplanes.“We are just a few steps from the finish line. We want to turn what are now one- and two-hour trips into five-minute trips,” Bevirt, 51, told the Associated Press before a Joby air taxi took off on a test flight in Marina, California—located about 40 miles south from where he grew up in the mountains.Archer Aviation, a Silicon Valley company backed by automaker Stellantis and United Airlines, has been testing its own eTVOLs over farmland in Salinas, California, where a prototype called “Midnight” could be seen gliding... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2025-01-08 15:38:34 UTC ]
Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 07:32 Lauren Beukes's Zoo City has been honoured with the Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction novel of the year, being tipped to bring "a whole new readership" to the genre. Zoo City's publisher Angry Robot Books has also... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 09:45 The BBC is broadcasting an item on The Culture Show about science fiction next month, in the wake of a row about the broadcasters approach to genre fiction. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 18/04/2011 - 09:19 Authors including Iain M Banks and Michael Moorcock have written to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson, attacking the treatment of genre fiction in its recent World Book Night coverage. In total 85 authors, across the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this