The second edition of the Green Racing Virtual Summit closed with a flourish, as it featured one of the most innovative categories in the history of motorsport electrification: Airspeeder, a division combining speed, adrenaline and racing action, but transferring all these characteristics up into the sky.
Jack Withinshaw, Commercial Director of Airspeeder, revealed several interesting aspects about the 100% electric category of flying vehicles. Joined by Juan Moran, Global Customer Director at DHL, there was a lively conversation about what future eVTOL racing has in store.
“Airspeeder is taking electric sports to the sky. Matt Pearson, CEO of the category, always dreamed of flying cars with TV shows as pioneers: Star War, Back To The Future…. Now, if you look at the market right now there will be about 500 aerial vehicle companies, but we’re doing something totally different.”
Related content: 5 Things You Should Know About Airspeeder
Withinshaw detailed that racing will always have a special place on any automotive revolution, noting that Airspeeder excels at three specific áreas: performance, safety and awareness.
Performance: “When you’re able to approach extreme configurations, you’re going to get great results, just like you see in traditional motorsports.
Safety: “When you have these vehicles reaching incredible paces, we want to be able to push the limits but in a safe way. It’s about figuring out how this whole new wave of technologies can contribute to that.”
Awareness: “We believe that one day we’re going to have flying cars around cities over the next 10 years. However, before that happens, we want people to fall in love with it, so we think racing is a great way to do that. Showcasing the technology so that people can connect. It’s about earning their trust.”
Airspeeder Features
“We can keep the Airspeeder vehicles in the air for 15 to 20 minutes. We’ll even have an electric pit stop facility to change the battery and then fly them again.” On top of that, the MK3 can reach 93 kilometers per hour, having a thrust-to-weight ratio of 3.5 that exceeds an F-15E Strike Eagle, one of the world’s most advanced fighter jets.
The category will officially debut in 2021 with unmanned races to pave the way regarding safety to finally upload pilots to the eVTOLs by 2022, so the action in the air will be very similar to what can be seen on the tarmac of any motorsport category.
Writen by | Ronald Ortega
