Posted on 08/06/2021 12:30:51 PM PDT by Red Badger
Tetra's Mk5 personal eVTOL is set to start deliveries in 2022Tetra Aviation VIEW 3 IMAGES
Japan's Tetra Aviation won a hundred-grand "disruptor award" at the GoFly personal flight contest last year, and has now presented its first commercial product at OshKosh: a 33-rotor Mk5 personal eVTOL it hopes to begin delivering to buyers in 2022.
The Mk5 is a lightweight single-seat lift-and-cruise-style aircraft running 32 vertical lift rotors distributed across long, thin wings at the front and rear of a small cabin, with a single pusher prop on the rear for cruise flight. Its frame is mainly aluminum, and the bodywork is a lightweight carbon fiber reinforced polymer with some aramid fibers in there too.
The prototype shown at OshKosh this year, which has already flown, is a decent size at 8.62 m (28.2 feet) wide, 6.15 m (20.2 ft) long and 2.51 m (8.2 ft) high, so it'll take up a fair bit of room in the garage. With a 13.5-kWh battery pack, it weighs 488 kg (1,076 lb) empty and has a maximum takeoff weight of 567 kg (1,250 lb) – leaving room for a 79-kg (174-lb) pilot or less.
Many of these figures will move north for the production version, which is designed to take at least a 91-kg (200-lb) pilot, and fly at cruise speeds up to 160 km/h (100 mph) for VTOL ranges as high as 160 km (100 miles) on a charge.
A 100-mph eVTOL with 100-mile range you can buy as a kit planeTetra Aviation Safety-wise, Tetra will be using at least three redundant flight controllers, capable of redistributing power across its 32 vertical lift props in the case of motor or flight controller failure. We're not sure how the battery pack's designed for safety, but if you get yourself high enough up, you can come down on a standard ballistic parachute.
Tetra is planning to build them and sell them as home-built experimental kit aircraft – meaning you'll be able to fly one on a private pilot's license in the US. The company is also planning to sell complete aircraft, and is looking to certify them as well, although not in the incredibly stringent commercial category most of the air taxi manufacturers are grappling with now. No prices are available as yet.
There are a few manufacturers now pushing "buy 'n' fly" personal eVTOL products that should be available in the short to medium term. Opener's BlackFly, for example, was also there at OshKosh this year, indeed performing manned flights of its unusual design, and Next UAS is also working on a simple single-seater for personal use.
Check out a short video from Tetra below.
VIDEO AT LINK.................
Aviation Pingy!..................
Heh, I wouldn’t throw it out of the bed for eating crackers in the rack!
Michael Moore won’t be able to fly this baby.
I could easily land that in my backyard
It folds up origami style and fits in your pocket.
A lawn dart…
I want one!
The 174-lb or less pilot weight is going to eliminate a lot of people.
I want one, too. I’m 6 foot. . .will I fit? May have to lose a few pounds to be on the safe side.
let alone fit into it...
Only good for one hour or less flights for distances of no more than 100 miles. No thanks.
Expensive vegomatic?
Of course, not before charging our credit card accordingly.
Oooh...shiny! That payload would cover me and a couple cases of beer, and the beer store is less than 20 miles away. Not sure about its being a kit plane, though. Flying something I built, I dunno...I once built a table lamp that blew a breaker. Might want to leave that to the pros.
Can this plane fight the F-15s that Joe threatens to let loose on the American people?
Not only that, but George didn’t have THIRTY THREE rotors to deal with. I like his zero rotor design.
Seems strange....
Why make the fuselage slippery and then hang all that drag inducing and vulnerable battery pods everywhere.
One does not need to be an aeronautical engineer to immediately spot major problems with this aircraft.
Did the breaker complain?
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