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The lucky few who were allowed to take the new Star Wars-like flying hover bike “had plenty of good things to say,” Euronews reports via Interesting Engineering. They really like the fact it can stay in the air for a full 40 minutes.
Flying hover bike
Thad Szott, the co-chair of the Detroit Auto Show was one of the very first outside the company to give the bike a try. “I mean, it’s awesome! Of course, you have a little apprehension, but I was just so amped. I literally had goosebumps and feel like a little kid.”
He believes it has great potential. “I think we’ll start with delivering goods and services, maybe by drone. It’s ready for today’s world if you go airport to airport. But I’m anxious to see when we can go neighborhood to neighborhood. So, let’s get it worked out.”
The XTurismo hover bike is already on sale in Japan. They say “a smaller version should be available in the US in 2023 for $777,000.” They also hope to “make a smaller electric model by 2025 for the price of a mere $50,000, which is pretty good for a craft that can actually fly.”
Forty minutes may seem like a short period but that can get most folks to work. Especially if they don’t have to sit in traffic.
For lift, the bike uses “two large central rotors powered by a 228-hp gas-powered Kawasaki motorcycle performance engine for thrust.”
Besides that, “four smaller electric support rotors are also placed on the vehicle’s outer edges for stability.”
Going public on NASDAQ
According to Shuhei Komatsu, AERWINS Technologies’ founder, director, chairman and chief executive officer, “It’s very exciting for us to be here in Detroit.”
He’s excited because “Detroit is the home of the mobility industry.” His Delaware based company AERWINS Technologies is “an air mobility company that makes drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.” Now they make a cool hover bike.
Japan “doesn’t classify the vehicle as an aircraft and doesn’t require a license to pilot it,” Komatsu explains. That’s still up in the air in America.
Komatsu is “hoping the U.S. government classifies its XTURISMO as a non-aircraft.” Negotiations are still ongoing.
