This is Lift Aircraft’s (Austin, Texas) drone-shaped eVTOL, Hexa.
Electric Vertical Take-Off Landing, or eVTOL for short, allows an aircraft to take off and land almost anywhere without the use of a runway or helipad.
Sergi Galiano of Supercar Blondie gave it a try, and he was blown away.
Sergi is a lot of things now, but he is not a pilot.
Nevertheless, he picked it up quite fast, which is a testament to how user-friendly Hexa is.
The joystick on the right side of the cockpit is all you need to fly it, as Lift Chief Pilot Jace McCown notes.
There are three buttons: take-off, landing, and H, which stands for “Helipad” and functions much like a “take-me-home” button.
A small dial that you may use to ascend and descend is located just underneath those buttons, and another dial that rotates the aircraft while it is in the air is located below the joystick.
Hexa may be configured to self-adjust and self-balance using a technology known as geofencing for security purposes.
Put simply, that means you may activate it and get acquainted with the aircraft without having to worry about going too high or too far.
Of course, the Hexa has an emergency parachute as well for added security.
Lift went the extra mile to make this as lightweight as possible by using carbon fiber and 3D-printed titanium components for the aircraft.
For instance, the propellers are not as heavy as a kitchen knife.
At 432 lbs (195 kg), the Hexa is actually lighter than a Ducati motorcycle.
Hexa is so light even Sergi can lift it by hand without putting his back out.
The aircraft is powered by eighteen lightweight batteries, it takes about five minutes to put them on. The vehicle doesn’t have wheels, instead it has buoyant legs because, among other things, Hexa can also land on water. Climb aboard and you’ll find an iPad Pro right in front of you with all the information you need. And it gets better because, for the production version, Lift is planning to add Augmented Reality (AR) to the iPad to help you fly and navigate.
Hexa by Lift will be available from late 2023 but you might want to hurry up if want one because there’s a waiting list of 15,000 people.
