World’s first flying EV drag race?

Alauda Aeronautics has conducted a timed drag race between two of its Airspeeder electric vertical take-off and landing (e-VTOL) vehicles over the South Australian desert and says it created a landmark moment for the venture. 

The drag-race was part of a key pre-season testing session for EXA, Airspeeder’s first electric flying car racing season, created by Alauda Aeronautics.  The engineering team is drawn from well-known aviation and motorsport entities such as Brabham, Boeing, Ferrari, McLaren and Jaguar. 

“We are on the cusp of making motorsport and mobility history with the world’s first electric flying car races,” Alauda Aeronautics founder and chief executive Matt Pearson says.

“This test race provides the world a glimpse at the next generation of motorsport and mobility,” he says.

The red liveried team (team Bravo), led by Technical Project Manager, Brett Hill faced the Black liveried team (team Alpha) led by Head of Operations, Renee Fraser. The two-day testing period proved an important showcase of live race conditions that teams and pilots will face in the forthcoming EXA races. 

Remote pilots were able to show the dynamic potential of the world’s first electric flying racing cars. They were given free rein to plot their own flight-path to victory. The drag-race format was chosen as a demonstration of the performance and safety technologies that underpin the sport, in particular, the ‘Virtual Forcefield’ suite of LiDAR and RADAR powered systems that delivers close but safe racing. 

The e-VTOL Speeders flew at more than 100 km/h and heights of 10m above the ground. The garage was split into two teams with the red Speeder (team Bravo) crossing the line 3.2s quicker than its black liveried rival (team Alpha). The drag race took place over 400m distance, as per traditional quarter mile drag racing. As the race-craft move through their rapid development curves they will race at up to 300 km/h in full race specification. 

Pearson says race events will see a grid of Speeders race in landscapes where motorsport has never been before. Teams will be provided with the Speeders but given technical and tactical freedom to approach gaining competitive edge in the series as they see fit.

He says viewers will be able watch via global broadcasts with coverage enhanced by technology that communicates the virtual tracks and race telemetry data projected directly to pilots through augmented reality. 

“Because flying car racing does not require the same physical infrastructure as legacy motorsport, this presents a sport built from the ground-up with sensitivity to the global requirement to race with minimal ecological impact,” Pearson says. 

The company is poised to announce the world’s first electric flying car Grand Prix calendar under the banner of the EXA Series. These remotely piloted races will serve as a vital feeder series for the forthcoming crewed Airspeeder Grand Prixs.  

Alauda Aeronautics says it has created the motor racing arm of this new form of transport and with it a place and a space for the industry to rapidly develop key safety, performance and digital technologies.  

It will soon make announcements on the first tranche of teams that have committed to the first electric flying car Grand Prix and the locations in which they will be staged.