Two cool Flying Car designs that just didn't happen (yet)
Atea and CityHawk - where are they now?
Ok I’m back from holiday break and have been perusing the deep interwebs to find some interesting tidbits about flying cars that either A) Aren’t Joby or B) Aren’t Lilium. Reason being, those two just go too much press last year, press overload. I just see stock tips on those two every day, all day long.
So I did manage to find something interesting - two flying cars (well one technically a very cool looking eVTOL) that were in prototype/concept stage, that just didn’t happen.
The first one is Atea from French firm Ascendance - supposedly an innovative aircraft meant to reduce the carbon footprint of the helicopter market and provide a sustainable and practical answer to link some destinations that are still hard to reach today. Sadly, no news from this company after 2022.
Atea was attempting to make aviation more sustainable. Not only that, but Atea would have been a perfect flagship for their hybrid-electric technology called Sterna.
Sterna is a modular, scalable system that combines two energy sources to progressively reduce aircraft emissions and achieve in-flight Net Zero. (whoa, could have been cool)
and now on to CityHawk - and what actually looks like a real flying car design.
Looks like there was a CEO change, and that’s when all the news stopped on this one.
Their CityHawk Taxi was described as follows: ‘Can start the daily commute on residential rooftops and fly over the traffic below. Its refined interior resembles that of a high-end luxury sedan; only with better views and a smoother ride.
Standard features*: Individual touch screens, Charging docks, Climate control, WiFi
CityHawk has a quiet cabin experience, ergonomic seats with plenty of legroom, and a dedicated luggage compartment. Its panoramic skylight roof provides breathtaking views to make each trip worth repeating.’ Dang, sounded pretty promising.
If you hear anything about either of these two projects, let us know!
For now, here are the links: https://www.urbanaero.com/news
https://www.ascendance-ft.com/products/atea