ISRAEL: Israeli scientists develop a flying vehicle for urban areas

Record ID: 396623

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli scientists develop a flying vehicle for urban areas
  • Date: 2nd March 2007
  • Summary: CLOSE OF GRAPHICS OF FLYING VEHICLE ON COMPUTER SCREEN YOELI AND COLLEAGUE LOOKING AT GRAPHICS
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA8596XLVAFNIVQNAY8V1FTISJE
  • Story Text: An Israeli company is developing a flying car for civil and military airborne rescue missions. An Israeli company is developing prototypes for two flying cars that will make it easier to carry out rescues, especially in cities.
    Rafi Yoeli, President & CEO of 'Urban Aeronautics', says the vehicles are the first to be designed to be used in densely-populated areas and for emergency evacuations.
    He says the aerial vehicles will include enclosed rotors mounted inside the fuselage.
    They take off like helicopters, but are designed to hover more steadily and touted as being much safer and quieter than helicopters, he added.
    "We are developing a vertical takeoff vehicle that unlike a helicopter does not have a big exposed rotors. So all the rotors of this vehicle are contained inside the fuselage and this enables it to fly in very confined spaces such as cities and woods, canyons and many places where helicopters can't reach," Yoeli says.
    Yoeli, who has worked for Boeing <BA.N> and Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., said they are designed to be able to manoeuvre through areas that other aircraft are often unable to reach, such as narrow spaces between buildings and below power lines.
    The larger of the vehicles, the X-Hawk, is roughly the size of a small truck and can seat 12 people. The smaller aircraft, the "Mule", is designed to be used to transport wounded or supplies.
    Both vehicles are not yet airborne, but Yoeli says that a company proof of concept vehicle made a number of hover flights in 2003 that demonstrated the company's patented technology.
    "There is a need today (for military applications) because more and more combat is done in urban areas. there is a need to fly combatants into the area and then to extract them out whether they have completed their mission or if they are wounded, to be able to extract them from a city which today can not be done," he added.
    Unlike conventional aircraft, very limited flight training will be required to operate these vehicles, he said, but added that experienced pilots would be better suited to carry out actual rescues.
    Yoeli said unmanned Mules will likely be marketed within three years, while the X-Hawk will take longer. Rescue teams, he said, will be able to pilot the X-Hawk at about 155 miles per hour to get to hard-to-reach places, like windows of high rises.
    Yoeli hopes to market FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) certified vehicles to firms and militaries abroad at about 3.5 to six million apiece, depending on model.
    Urban Aeronautics has been collaborating with American aerospace firms to develop its technology.
    One of these companies, Bell Helicopters, a supplier of military and commercial aircraft, has been working with Urban Aeronautics to try to garner U.S. government funding to develop a military version of the X-Hawk to be used as a troop carrier, the Israeli firm said in a statement.
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