Another toy for the ultra rich .

This seems a great way to initiate a life insurance claim.

Ngl, the promo pics are very appealing. But unlike the Volonaut Airbike, the rest of us are anchored to the ground, and to some semblance of practicality, even if we might dream for the skies.

The promo video seems to show it flying at a height higher than what ground-effect vehicles would normally use, which implies that its purported jet motor produces enough thrust to lift the machine and its rider. The question then becomes one of excess power, which is what’s necessary to accelerate a flying machine upwards or forwards. In this application where there are no major flight surfaces visible, it may also dictate the deceleration rate. Helicopters have a comparable slowing-down mechanism, essentially tilting back so a component of the rotor’s lift is opposite the direction of travel.

As a recreational vehicle, this would be great fun. But in traffic, well, why would you ride this in traffic? There would be little benefit from hovering just above a highway just to be caught in the same congestion as road traffic. Flying 5 meters above the surface would avoid even the tallest Interstate-legal trucks in the USA, but overpasses and gantries present obstacles. But any higher than that would implicate airspace regulations. For simplicity sake, I’ll assume this machine would not fall under road traffic rules, but there’s a colorable debate that hovering within the typical space of a road would constitute a road-going vehicle, even if no part touches the ground.

In the USA, there does exist Class G airspace, which is uncontrolled by ATC and exists where no other class of airspace has applied. Typically, Class G will exist directly below some Class E airspace, which begins at 700 or 1200 ft above the ground (aka AGL). But sometimes it will start at the ground, meaning there can’t be any Class G below. This is the airspace that most people would reasonably use for ground-based activities, like flying kites or badminton.

However, with regards to aircraft registration, the closest category might be Part 103 Ultralights, which generally are low-power, low-weight machines which don’t require a pilot certificate. IMO, ultralights are awesome and can take any form including fixed-wing craft, rotorcraft, seaplanes, and even paramotors. But this machine can’t qualify for that, purely because ultralights require a max airspeed no higher than 55 knots. But the specs say this can do 200 km/h (108 knots) ground speed, which is way too fast.

I’m not even going to address the safety of doing 100+ knots at only 700 or 1200 ft above the ground. But suffice to say that the regulatory structure is not prepared for this machine’s mass-market appeal. Then again, we said that about ebikes in the early 2010s and now look at them: a multi-billion dollar industry that has overtaken acoustic bikes in some markets.

It’s very cool, no doubt. And it does seem to qualify as micro mobility. But I want to make sure no one views this as some sort of game changer for city-dwellers, where the bicycle and public transit will continue reigning supreme.

VTOL micromobility? I’m sure it won’t be prohibitively expensive!

A flying Harley. This is a dirty noisy wasteful toy for antisocial people who have too much money. Next.