ROME – The countdown has begun for the first electric plane with vertical take-off and landing for almost everyone. An aircraft that can be easily piloted and parked in your garage thanks to the possibility of folding the wings but above all with a price within the reach of many. This is not an announcement like many that we hear every day about the means with which (perhaps) we will travel in the next decades as if they were cars but the opening of the pre-orders of One, the first personal aircraft designed and produced by the start-up. Israeli Air, which can be purchased at a price of “just” $ 150,000, so much to say that it is for everyone but similar to that of many luxury sedans and SUVs that we come across every day on the street.
It is estimated that by 2030, the market for eVTOLs, vertical take-off and landing electric vehicles will develop a turnover of 30 billion dollars. So far, however, large vehicles have been seen almost exclusively as helicopters for public transport and in particular as self-driving air taxis, expensive and within the reach of a few such as Velocity, which announced Aeroporti di Roma to connect Fiumicino airport to center of Rome in 15 minutes. Or like many other vehicles already announced and presented by other airports and organizations around the world. Air’s aircraft, however, even before this transport starts with an elite of very few, tries to make it almost within everyone’s reach.
The two-seater aircraft has a range of 180 km and can travel at a speed of 250 km / h. It recharges from 20 to 80% in 30 minutes and completely in one hour. Unlike almost all the eVTOLs presented or announced so far, however, it is not self-driving but needs human invoices, which has made it possible to reduce costs by a lot. Thanks to the proprietary software developed by the Israeli company that simplifies the controls and operations, however, the sports pilot license is enough, which in Italy is obtained with a course that costs less than 4,000 euros and with just 16 hours in flight training. double command. Thanks to the “fly by intent” software, the pilot who has a joystick is reserved for simple operations and general indications, the rest of the complex functions and navigation is done by the software that also includes a monitoring system enabled by artificial intelligence which carries out frequent vehicle inspections and eliminates the checklists usually borne by drivers. “
If you push the yoke to the left ”explained Rani Plaut, the CEO of Air,“ it is not that the plane only leans to the left, it is as if it perceives the direction of travel you want, it is like a biologically inspired element ”. With about fifty pre-orders already in its portfolio, half of which come from Australia, Air is working with the FAA, the US aviation agency to obtain G1 certification by the end of next year while in the following 2024 it will begin to deliver the first aircraft.