Jeff Bezos once took Lift Aircraft’s Hexa for a spin – now the US$500,000 ‘flying car’ has a 15,000-strong wait-list in spite of Covid-19 delaying plans
Austin start-up Lift Aircraft has dubbed its US$495,000, millennial-targeted flying vehicle Hexa the ‘future of personal flight’ – its lightweight, electricity-propelled, looks like a drone and you don’t even need a pilot’s license to fly it
Austin start-up Lift Aircraft calls Hexa, its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the “future of personal flight”. So far it‘s been compared to a drone and a flying car.
Hexa is essentially a recreational vehicle for the air, able to fly in 15-minute intervals at low altitudes. Lift plans to market them to millennials with disposable incomes – and anyone chasing an adrenaline high, because a pilot’s license isn’t required. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed plans, but Lift still says it will be touring locations across the US where anyone meeting height, weight, and age requirements can pay to fly. As of November 2019, Lift says it had more than 15,000 flights on a wait-list to ride Hexa.
The company is also selling a small number of Hexas to buyers who will then rent them out. They cost US$495,000, and only five are still available.
Here‘s how they work.
Hexa flies through electric propulsion
Hexa is surprisingly light, at only 196kg (432 pounds)
The frame is made entirely of carbon fibre. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) qualified Hexa as “ultralight”, so no pilot‘s license is necessary for flying. Instead, the autopilot computer with triple redundancies flies the vehicle along with a three-axis joystick. Or it can be controlled from the seven-inch touch screen.
Lift says it gives ‘plenty of training’ before take-off