Aerospace giant Boeing has placed its backing behind flying taxi start-up Kitty Hawk creating a strategic partnership that could trigger a new age of urban air mobility. The partnership promises to ‘bring together the innovation of Kitty Hawk’s Cora division with Boeing’s scale and aerospace expertise’.
(Image via KittyHawk).
Kitty Hawk already has the support of Google co-founder Larry Page and has so far revealed two aircraft, the Cora which is Kitty Hawk’s flying taxi, and the Flyer which is a kind of personal seaplane. But it’s the Cora which has grabbed the attention of Boeing and is the focus of the strategic partnership.
(Image via Kitty Hawk).
The Cora was first shown off to the world last year and is a two-seater, short-distance electric plane which uses 12 wing-mounted propellers to first take-off vertically, and then a single-prop at the rear for horizontal flight. Initial stats revealed by Kitty Hawk suggest that the Cora can fly for a distance of approximately 60 miles (per battery charge) and hit speeds of 110mph.
(Image via Kitty Hawk).
Commenting on Boeing’s backing of Kitty Hawk’s Cora division, Steve Nordlund, vice president and general manager of Boeing NeXt, said:
“Working with a company like Kitty Hawk brings us closer to our goal of safely advancing the future of mobility. We have a shared vision of how people, goods and ideas will be transported in the future, as well as the safety and regulatory ecosystem that will underpin that transportation.”
(Image via Kitty Hawk).
Sebastian Thrun, co-founder and CEO of Kitty Hawk said:
“Kitty Hawk was started to advance technology in flight and bring new innovations to life. I am excited about our companies working together to accelerate making safe electric flight a reality.”
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