When people imagine transportation in the future, it often involves flying cars and other futuristic flying devices that people can beat highway traffic with. That vision might soon become a reality as Boeing’s GoFly Prize has finally announced the 10 most outstanding designs for a personal flying device. In the next phase, innovators will have to actually bring their ideas and designs to life.
10 GoFly Phase I Winners
Last year, the GoFly Prize, a $2 million international competition, was announced, with the simple goal to encourage innovators to create a design for a safe and easy-to-use personal flying device. The device designs must be compact, quiet, and able to go 20 miles without recharging or refueling.
Now, out of the many submissions from over 30 countries, 10 have been selected as the winners for Phase I of the competition, with winning teams from the United States, Latvia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Japan.
Each winning team received $20,000. Their designs, the Era Aviabike, Blue Sparrow, HummingBuzz, Vantage, Mamba, Pegasus 1, S1, teTra 3, Harmony, and Flykart2 each have unique features and designs that are good candidates for a future flying device that does not lack in style.
For instance, the S1 is designed to have a motorcycle-like orientation that’s powered by two electric motors, making it able to make a 90-degree transition from vertical takeoff, straight to a horizontal flight. Another winner, the Blue Sparrow, was created by the collaboration of students and faculty at Penn State University to be a safe and robust device that’s also fun to fly.
Phase II: Building
In Phase II of GoFly, innovators have to take their ideas further by actually bringing their devices to life by building them and actually testing out their designs. Phase II is officially open, and people can still participate even if they did not win or even participate in Phase I of the competition.
The teams who will be accepted by GoFly into the Building phase have the support of GoFly sponsors in matters such as mentoring, services, media, software, products, and discounts.
The four participating teams with the best prototypes at the March 2019 will receive $50,000, while four prizes, including a $1 million Grand Prize Winner, is expected to be announced at the Final Fly-Off in the fall of the same year.
“The ingenuity of these ideas shows how the GoFly Prize competition aligns to Boeing’s mission of changing the world through aerospace innovation. We’re looking forward to seeing these innovators turn their ideas into reality,” said Greg Hyslop, Boeing Chief Technology Officer.
