German engineers celebrate as the Volocopter, one of the world's first electric helicopters, takes off on its maiden flight.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Introducing e-volo's Volocopter: multi-rotor electric helicopter makes maiden flight
- Eco-friendly machine powered by 100 kg battery, can travel 70kph
- Part of EU scheme looking at how personal aerial vehicles could replace cars
- Expected to be available by 2015, would cost around $338,000
Art of Movement is CNN's monthly show exploring the latest innovations in art, culture, science and technology.
(CNN) -- There's a lot to be said for determination.
Two years ago, a contraption that looked a bit like a bouncy ball
attached to a clothesline, took flight in a pioneering experiment in the
German countryside.
A YouTube clip of a man flying the electric "Multicopter"
attracted over 8 million hits, with comments ranging from: "AMAZING
MACHINE!" to "Not sure you could pay me enough to sit in the middle of
flying blenders bolted together."
Regardless, the three
German engineers behind the baffling creation plowed ahead with their
dream of making an electric helicopter. Last week it paid off.
There wasn't a bouncy ball in sight as the slick white "Volocopter" took to the air for the first time, quietly hovering 20 meters high, while its ecstatic creators cheered below.
Featuring 18 propellers
on a lightweight carbon frame, the futuristic copter -- which has been
around €4 million ($5.4 million) in the making -- could change the way
we commute forever.
"What we're looking at
now, is in the future where everyone is traveling not by car, but by
some kind of aircraft," explained Stephan Wolf, co-chief executive of e-volo, the company behind the remarkable flying machine.
"Normal helicopters are
very hard to fly. But we thought 'what if you could have a helicopter
that is easy for the pilot to fly, and cheap compared to other
aircraft?'"
Clever copter
Powered by a 100
kilogram battery, the two-passenger Volocopter can travel at least 70
kilometers per hour, recently making its first remote-controlled flight
in a hanger in Karlsruhe, southwest Germany.
The chopper weighs just
300 kilograms in total. One limitation is that it currently only has
enough power to fly for 20 minutes -- though designers are looking at
ways of increasing this, or introducing a hybrid engine.
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Many small rotors --
attached to a 10-meter wide circular frame -- also help the eco-friendly
machine hover more easily than other helicopters.
"If you let the joystick
go, the Volocopter will just hover in the current position, so there's
nothing the pilot has to do," said Wolf.
"But if you do that in another helicopter it will crash immediately."
Reimagining the city
Indeed, the Volocopter's
simplicity sets it apart from other helicopters, and its creators hope
in the future commuters will be able to take their electric aircraft to
work, instead of languishing in gridlocked cars below.
The European Union
is already looking at ways personal aerial vehicles (PAVs) could
revolutionize urban spaces. It might sound like a scene from the
Jetsons, but a city where flying machines replace cars isn't as far off
as it seems.
"The most helicopters in the world are in Sao Paulo, Brazil,"
explained Wolf. "They have several thousand movements per day because
the streets are congested and everyone who can afford it is taking the
helicopter to go from one building to the next.
"You can imagine this
happening in a big city in Germany. And already we've been approached by
several companies who'd like to do it, maybe with landing pads on
buildings."
The team hopes to sell
its first Volocopter by 2015, with each machine setting you back
€250,000 ($338,000). They're now on the lookout for further funding to develop their unique design.
Think big
Maybe you need to go up in the air, to solve transportation problems
Stephan Wolf, co-chief executive, e-volo
Stephan Wolf, co-chief executive, e-volo
It's a long way from the first awkward-looking Multicopter test flight in 2011.
Even more impressive,
considering Wolf himself was a computer software engineer for 25 years
before turning his attention to futuristic flying machines -- "I was
dreaming of building a helicopter since I was a child," he said.
Then there's the other
e-volo founders -- Thomas Senkal, a former physicist, and Alexander
Zosel, who managed a disco for almost 10 years, who also got on board
the pioneering project.
"I think everyone wants
to fly," said Wolf. "Helicopters are very expensive and people think
maybe this is a way to be a pilot themselves.
"In 20 or 30 years from
now there will be even more cities with millions more people living in
them and transportation will be a big problem. Maybe you need to go up
in the air to solve these problems."
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