Today’s biggest technology companies are all on a race towards one goal. For the past few years, companies like Uber, Facebook, Ehang, Intel, and Airbus all desire to be that first company to create the fully functional Transport Drone. For most of the companies mentioned above, they have already started in the right direction. Blueprints and designs received attention, and testing phases began in each facility. Specific patents have been filed in hopes of these ideas helping each company down the line to create a mass produced Taxi Drone.
The concept is simple enough, but the reality is far more complicated. Most of the drone ideas floating around these big companies involve a drone, the size of a car, capable of carrying one person to their destinations. Some opt for up to three people, but for the most part, the goal is trying to create a drone capable of flight, while also carrying loads of up to 120 kg.
Transport Drone from the Philippines
An unexpected contender comes from the country of the Philippines, where one person claims to have beaten all these large companies to the punch. The man claims to be an inventor, who created a fully functioning ‘flying sports car’ and even displayed it in front of a crowd. The man behind it all is Kyxz Mendiola, a native of Batangas, Philippines.
The transport drone is capable of carrying one person at a time, at a maximum weight limit of 100 kg. It has eight massive arms with a powerful rotor spinning at the end of each one. The flight capacity is impressive; especially considering one person made the entire thing from scratch. It is also noteworthy that all funding came from his own pocket. So you can imagine how long it took to get this invention going.
It can reach a height of 20 feet up; and the drone can reach 60 kilometers per hour in speed. Its power source is six lithium-ion batteries. The demo flight Mendiola performed in front of the crowd lasted 10 full minutes before running out of power.
Aftermath
After his public maiden voyage, the lone inventor is not so lonesome anymore. He received an offer from Australian tech company Star8 to further improve the design. Plans started as well to mass-produce these transports for the whole world to see.
Not so bad considering he started this project from virtually nothing.
