It’s over for Kitty Hawk. The company backed by Google founder Larry Page is shutting down. She had imagined sorts of “flying cars” halfway between the helicopter, the drone and the plane. But it didn’t take.
It’s over for Kitty Hawk’s “flying cars”. The American company announced on LinkedIn the end of its activities on September 21, 2022. News about this startup, founded in 2017 and financed by Larry Page, has been rarer lately. His last public activity dated back to Januarywith the presence of one of its machines for a conference.
The withdrawal of Kitty Hawk is not a surprise: in five years of existence, the company has not managed to realize its dream of air transport. Admittedly, it imagined and designed prototypes, such as the Cora, the Flyer or the Heaviside, but the production stage, in anticipation of marketing, could never be reached.
Larry Page gradually lost interest in Kitty Hawk
According to Business Insider, one reason for Kitty Hawk’s downfall is Page’s growing disinterest in the band. Sources told the media that he was also the sole funder of the startup throughout its five years of existence. However, Larry Page does not seem completely decided to leave this sector: he is involved in another company, Opener.
The models imagined by Kitty Hawk were not able to carry a large number of passengers – two for the Cora, one for the Flyer and one for the Heaviside. The performance of each aircraft was also variable: some were designed to go quite fast and far (the Cora), while others had much less capabilities (the Flyer).
In terms of use, Kitty Hawk had imagined two possibilities: recreational flights, with the Flyer (we were talking at the time of a maximum flight time of 20 minutes at a moderate speed of 34 km/h, at an altitude of 3 meters ), and individual transport flights or in pairs with the other two aircraft (the capacities in terms of autonomy, speed and altitude were greater then).
The aircraft Kitty Hawk designed relied on electricity to operate. Aware that batteries increase the weight of a vehicle and that they do not have sufficient capacity to allow a standard take-off, Kitty Hawk has chosen very small vehicles and vertical landing and take-off (VTOL) .
To do this, Kitty Hawk’s machines were dotted with propellers that pivoted as needed: in a vertical position, they were used to raise or land the aircraft. In the horizontal position, they provided the thrust to move, while the wings provided the lift to stay aloft. VTOL is an approach followed by other companies, such as Airbus or Uber.
Other companies continue the quest for the “flying car”, with projects that are “flying car” only in name. Very often, these vehicles borrow more from planes, helicopters and drones than from automobiles. This was also the case with Kitty Hawk, if only in the look of each concept. But, sometimes there are “real” flying cars.