On the evening of October 24, 2022, Xiaopeng Huitian's latest road-air integrated flight vehicle test prototype X3 successfully tested, but many netizens questioned its low technical content, but it was just "DJI Cang Xiaopeng ". An insider of Xiaopeng Huitian told Red Star News that flying cars are not simply "installing" flight systems in cars, and flying and driving require integrated design and development.
In recent years, flying cars have been highly sought after by the investment market. According to Morgan Stanley , the global flying car industry will reach a market size of US$300 billion by 2030 and grow to US$1.5 trillion by 2040. Flying cars are called the "new trend" of travel. According to statistics, as of 2021, more than 200 companies or institutions around the world have been developing about 420 models of flying car products, and the entire industry has raised about US$2 billion.
On October 19, 2021, Xiaopeng Huitian, a flying car company under Xiaopeng Motors , completed a US$500 million Series A financing, setting a record for the largest single financing in the field of low-altitude manned aircraft in Asia. On October 10 this year, Xiaopeng Huitian Flying Vehicle Test Plane completed its first overseas test flight in Dubai, UAE. On the same day, Zhao Deli, founder of Xiaopeng Huitian, revealed that the company's planned mass-produced flying car prototype will also be launched recently and will be unveiled on October 24.
↑X3's first test flight wing
On October 24, Xiaopeng Huitian officially released the first test video of the test vehicle X3. Xiaopeng Huitian official said that this is the world's first real electric hanging flying car. Xiaopeng Huitian relies on full-stack self-development to achieve the power demand for automobile Feitian. In the video, the X3 performs forward flight, hover and landing actions, with a flight altitude of 10 meters in the middle.
According to insiders of Xiaopeng Huitian, the final configuration of the flying car changes the horizontal dual rotor configuration to a distributed multi-rotor configuration, and changes the flying folding structure . The roof is equipped with four rotors, and the flying car can be used in two states: road and flight. In the road state, the rotor is folded and the car is the same as the ordinary car. After switching to flight mode, the flying car can take off and land vertically under conditions permitted by regulations and environment.
After the news that the X3 of Xiaopeng Huitian Flying Car Prototype X3 successfully flew for the first time, there were also many opinions questioning that the flying car was just " DJI hanging Xiaopeng". What is its technical content?
Red Star News reporter learned that the research and development goal of flying cars is to meet both land and air use. However, superposition of the two systems of ground driving and air flight will lead to excessive operating systems or require runway assistance to fly and taxiing. The current mainstream solution is an electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTO, abbreviation of Leelectric-Vertical-Take-Off-and-Landing), which does not require a skid take-off and landing, and can be understood as a manned drone .
↑X3's first test flight power system
X3 insiders told Red Star News that flying cars are not simply "installing" flight systems on cars. As a whole, all systems such as land travel, flight, deformation storage need to be integrated development and design.
Secondly, the basic attribute of a flying car is still a car. Zhao Deli, president of Xiaopeng Huitian, said in an interview with " China Business News " that Xiaopeng Huitian's flying car drives on the road about 90% of the time and can fly in the sky 10% of the time.
Xiaopeng Huitian insiders said that the power required for vertical takeoff of cars is 10-15 times that of ground driving, and a very powerful power system is needed to make a 2-ton car fly. "The industry currently has no mature power products, and there is no experience to learn from."
On another level, the diameter of the flying car is as long as 3.5 meters. Under the huge moment of inertia, the rapid response and precise regulation of the dynamic changes in the rotor speed are also technical problems that need to be overcome.
↑X3 first test flight picture
Many netizens questioned that after the official production, the application scenarios of flying cars are limited. An insider of Xiaopeng Huitian said that the application scenarios at the beginning of the launch of the flying car are mainly in fixed urban routes, suburban flight experience, sightseeing exploration and leapfrogging of landforms.With the iteration of product technology, infrastructure construction and policies, flying cars will truly meet daily commuting needs, solve problems such as traffic congestion, and even change human lifestyles.
However, for the current information on the battery life of the flying car X3, the maximum number of people can be carried, the flight altitude and the maximum flight speed, Xiaopeng Huitian has not announced the detailed parameters since it is still in the research and development stage. However, Xiaopeng officially stated that the plan has not been finalized yet and mass-produced models will be further optimized on this basis.
Xiaopeng Huitian insiders told reporters that they plan to mass production and commercialize flying cars from 2024 to 2025, with the pricing range being one million.
Red Star News Reporter Chen Yifan Lan Jing
Editor Guan Li Xiao Ziqi
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