Local Start-Up Launches Single-Seater Flying Vehicle

A four-man Singapore start-up company, NEO Aeronautics, has recently unveiled a flying vehicle! At an unveiling last Thursday (April 25), the company showed off media videos of the flying vehicle in action.

What We Know About the Flying Vehicle

Named the Crimson S8, the one-seater manned flying vehicle is still in the works. According to its inventors, it can already fly! Unfortunately, it is still not ready to have humans on board.

The Crimson S8 fits into a standard car-park lot, and takes off and lands vertically. It is able to fly at a minimum height of 15 meters, while also being able to reach speeds of up to 100km/h. The flying vehicle will also be able to carry loads of up to 100kg!

As of right now, the Crimson S8 can fly for about 20 minutes at most. However, the team aims to increase the vehicle’s flight time to between 30 and 100 minutes, by using a hybrid generator.

In addition, the Crimson S8 was developed under the US Federal Aviation Administration’s “ultralight” category. What this means is that a pilot licence will not be required to fly the vehicle, nor is there an age-limit on who can pilot the vehicle.

However, NEO Aeronautics plans to have rules of its own: potential users must be above 16, and must attend a two-hour training session before they can pilot the Crimson S8.

What’s Next for Neo Aeronautics?

Unfortunately, Singapore’s current regulations do not allow for personal flying vehicles to be operated in public. On the other hand, in the US, personal flying vehicles can be flown in suburban housing areas! It’s for this reason that NEO Aeronautics is planning to launch the Crimson S8 in the United States once it is ready. The launch date is estimated to be around late in 2020.

By 2025, NEO Aeronautics hopes that there will be 1,000 Crimson S8 models each across 25 cities, making a total of about 50 million trips yearly.