Agility Prime, The USAF’s New Flying Car

We Were Promised Flying Cars

The USAF showed off a one person flying vehicle called the Agility Prime, which looks more like a flock of quadrocopters than a flying car, but certainly does fly you from one place to another.  It is a heavily modified version of the version of a Lift Hexa copter, which carries far less weight than an adult but is designed specifically as a heavy lifting drone.  

The Agility Prime uses 18 electric motors to be able to carry a passenger, capable of taking off and landing vertically and inside a much smaller footprint than a helicopter.   They showed it off in a live demonstration earlier this week, successfully demonstrating it’s capabilities.   As you can see below it leaves the occupant open to the elements, which will limit how high it can go as well as the theatres it can operate in.  It also doesn’t seem particularly fit for combat duty.

The USAF has heard from 15 different aeronautics companies which are interested in the Agility Prime, which might give it a leg up on the dozens of other flying cars in development or abandoned over the past couple of decades.  Sneak over to The Register to see a bit more about it.