Impossible and Vertical join the Drones Club
- Автор:Ella Cai
- Отпустите на:2018-09-11
Vertical or Impossible? Routes to drones are proliferating but the essentials are similar.
Two new drones from the US and UK have come from Impossible Aerospace of Sunnyvale, California, and Vertical Aerospace of Bristol.
Vertical’s drone (pictured) has been built by 28 aerospace and technical experts hired from from Airbus, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Martin Jetpack and GE Aviation.
The battery-powered, 750kg, four rotor drone is reported to be able to carry up to four passengers for 93 miles at a top speed of 186mph. It has started test flights after approvals from the CAA.
Impossible’s drone is also electric, also with four rotors, can fly for between 90 minutes and two hours on a charge and can recharge 75% of the battery in about 45 minutes charging time.
It has raised $11 million including $9.4 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and says it will start delivering drones to customers this year..
Impossible founder and CEO Spencer Gore, who used to work for Tesla’s battery unit, sees a drone as a flying battery.
“What we’re trying to do here is build the highest-performance aircraft that electric propulsion will allow,” says Gore, “what that really means is a rethinking from the ground up of what an aircraft should look like if it’s electric, and that is a flying battery. I realised quite early on that in order to make battery-powered aircraft possible, you had to build something that was basically 70-percent battery, by mass.”
Two new drones from the US and UK have come from Impossible Aerospace of Sunnyvale, California, and Vertical Aerospace of Bristol.
Vertical’s drone (pictured) has been built by 28 aerospace and technical experts hired from from Airbus, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Martin Jetpack and GE Aviation.
The battery-powered, 750kg, four rotor drone is reported to be able to carry up to four passengers for 93 miles at a top speed of 186mph. It has started test flights after approvals from the CAA.
Impossible’s drone is also electric, also with four rotors, can fly for between 90 minutes and two hours on a charge and can recharge 75% of the battery in about 45 minutes charging time.
It has raised $11 million including $9.4 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and says it will start delivering drones to customers this year..
Impossible founder and CEO Spencer Gore, who used to work for Tesla’s battery unit, sees a drone as a flying battery.
“What we’re trying to do here is build the highest-performance aircraft that electric propulsion will allow,” says Gore, “what that really means is a rethinking from the ground up of what an aircraft should look like if it’s electric, and that is a flying battery. I realised quite early on that in order to make battery-powered aircraft possible, you had to build something that was basically 70-percent battery, by mass.”
