While the rest of humanity continues to wait for the day hoverboards finally become a commercial reality, flying cars seems to be making strive to kinda become a reality. Introducing the BELL NEXUS, the flying taxi of the future and planning on taking off in 2020.
The Bell Nexus, formerly known as the Bell Helicopter is a hyrbid-electric propulsion aircraft, that uses six tilting ducted fans to take off and land vertically from a rooftop or launchpad. I talked about this innovation last year and said that it was a bold move on Bell’s part and I’d wished them all the luck on this ambitious idea. Well, looks like it’s becoming a reality sooner than I expected.
Bell are planning on doing test flights in 2020 and have ensured us that this thing is no joke.
According to Verge, who interviewed Drenman who is the director of innovation at Bell:
“This is not a toy,” Drennan told The Verge. “This is an aircraft you would feel safe and comfortable bringing your family into.”
The large ducts hide the rotors, which should help ease any anxiety from customers about losing a limb from its fast-spinning blades. In other words, “for people who aren’t accustomed to VTOL type aircraft,” Drennan said — which, arguably, is everyone who doesn’t regularly commute via helicopter.
I am actually excited to see this machine become a reality. I won’t be the first to get in the flying car but I wish the first few passengers of this great innovation godspeed as they test drive this for me. I’ll join them one day!
What do you guys think? Are we ready for flying cars?
