Ever wonder if you, a non-pilot, could fly a ‘flying car’? This reporter tried it

We retain listening to, and reporting, that the era of the particular flying machine … flying auto … air taxi … connect with it what you will … is appropriate close to the corner, with backing from massive gamers like automakers or plane firms. In some imaginings, you would be a passenger though these electric vertical takeoff and landing plane are flown by a cabbie/pilot. In other individuals, you would be useless body weight (hold out, let us not say useless) currently being ferried aboard an autonomous drone. But body weight and technological innovation currently being limiting factors here, the career of flying just could possibly arrive down to you. So possibly you have questioned: Could you do it?

We 1st explained to you about a Silicon Valley eVTOL organization identified as Opener back in 2018. And correct to the generally-just-a-yr-away mother nature of the flying auto match, at that time it expected to commence sales of its BlackFly plane in 2019, for the value of an SUV. Very well, it truly is 2021, and while there is not yet a BlackFly parked in your garage, the a person-seater is FAA-accredited, and it has been test-flown much more than 4,300 instances for more than 35,000 miles — racking up a stockpile of YouTube video clips in the process.

The corporation now claims 25 BlackFly plane will be offered this fall.

The craft is meant to be amphibious, landing on water or grass, and its identify is derived from the flight traits of, nicely, a black fly, together with the colour of its carbon-fiber fuselage. The key to its technological innovation is its Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technologies (LEAPTech), a method of eight redundant propellers formulated on the NASA Ames X-Aircraft software. The method permits every of the propellers to switch at distinctive speeds, this means the plane can hover, switch on a dime or do just about anything a set-wing plane normally can’t.

And here’s a enjoyment fact: You will not need to have a pilot’s license to fly a BlackFly. (You do need to have to comprehensive Opener’s operator training, nevertheless.)

An additional enjoyment fact, getting back to the could-you-do-it dilemma: The corporation is not going to permit you make a test flight. But here’s the subsequent ideal issue: looking at any individual else with no experience give it a try. CBS Sunday Morning correspondent John Blackstone lately went by way of BlackFly simulator training, and then corporation founder Marcus Leng place him in the pilot seat. Look at it out in the video clip earlier mentioned.

While the landing seems to be dicey, there was no damage accomplished — Blackstone received BlackFly up and back down once more. So possibly the relaxation of us could do the same?