Company Kitty Hawk announced the closure of the project Flyer and the dissolution of his team of 70 people. Only a small part was allowed to stay, to go to work on a new project. It will be a fully electric aircraft with vertical take-off function. Working title: “Heaviside”.
Flying electric Flyer, the world learned more in the 2017th, but the novelty is not appreciated. Single 120-pound machine looked like a drone overgrown and did not stand out performance against competitors. The only advantage Flyer called ease of development – average to learn to fly it can be had for two hours. It was built 111 copies and performed 25 000 flight hours, including missions without a pilot.
Alas, as a business project Flyer “took off”, which ultimately recognized in Kitty Hawk. They failed to attract the attention of consumers, so it was decided to change the concept. New project Heaviside will be able to replace the light helicopter, but it will be many times quieter than him. He’s still single and not too economical, but does not create emissions.
Source — Kitty Hawk